Preliminary Programme

This paper focuses on the changing conditions for long-term sickness absence in Sweden during the first half of the 20th century. By analysing texts such as government reports and newspaper articles, together with the legislative changes that took place, the altering perception of sickness absence will be discussed. The text especially highlights the changing boundaries for payed sick leave as it focuses on the debate regarding long-term sickness. In the beginning of the 20th century most members in a Swedish sickness fund would have been allowed sickness benefit for a maximum of 90 days a year. Although, as funds were privately organised rules and regulations were much diversified. With new legislation and a reorganisation of the sickness fund movement in the mid-1930s, rules became more heterogenic and the amount of eligible days rose substantially, allowing for up to two years of sickness benefit. With extensive insurance coverage, defining important concepts such as illness, as well as incapacity to work, became increasingly important and a subject for debate. Also, many workers did not have health insurances, even though the proportion of workers being members in a sickness fund rose substantially in Sweden during the first half of the 20th century. This highlights the overlapping coverage of insurances and social security schemes for the long-term sick, such as disability pension, work injury and health insurances, as well as poor relief. The aim of this paper is to investigate changes in insurance coverage for the long-term sick and the motives behind such changes in the early Swedish welfare state. (Show less)

From the late nineteenth-century onwards, western societies experienced an epidemiological transition that saw a shift in the causes of death from acute, infectious disease to more chronic, degenerative diseases that operated over a much longer period of time. This was accompanied by an increase in the duration of ill health. The implications of this were that many employees experienced extended periods of incapacity from work, and that the period from cessation of work to death became more attenuated over time.
In this paper we explore these issues in relation to the British Post Office, the largest employer in the country with over 167,000 employees at the turn of the century. We first identify the duration of ill health in the workforce, using hitherto unused evidence drawn from pension records. Secondly, we identify the main causes of ill health leading to premature retirement, distinguishing risks arising from living conditions from those relating to occupational hazards. Thirdly, we examine the post-retirement life trajectories of workers pensioned off early because of ill health, linking the causes of death to prior conditions. (Show less)

Three linked longitudinal data sets are available from the UK Censuses. Each take a sample of the population from Census data and follow it across time, linking in administrative data and with the capacity to link further data at low level geographies. The LSs are not based on voluntary surveys; they provide unparalleled coverage and sample sizes which allow research using risk factors and outcomes often unavailable from other sources. This paper will focus on the ONS Longitudinal Study which has 40 years of follow-up 1971 – 2011. The study follows a 1% sample of the public enumerated in England and Wales in any census within the period, and links to their mortality records. The sample is based on all individuals born in any year on any of 4 birthdates, meaning there are over 500,000 respondents in each year. In 1971 1,602 men and 593 women identified their current or most recent occupation such that it was classified by the Office for National Statistics as either: Telephone operators, Telegraph and radio operator, Postmen mailsorters, or Messengers. This paper will look the health outcomes and mortality of those postal workers relative to other occupations. (Show less)