Objective: To analyze the association between occupational factors (number of contracts and occupational category) and potential years of working life lost (PYWLL) due to non-work related permanent disability (PD).
Participants: The study design was a retrospective cohort of 11,812 workers affiliated with the Social Security System in Spain that began a non-work related PD between 2004 and 2009.
Methods: The PYWLL was defined as the time in years between the age at which a worker initiates a PD and age 65 or the age of reinstatement to a job. The PYWLL was analyzed by calculating the quartiles and using an approach based on a median regression.
Results: The difference in medians of PYWLL between men and women was 2.49 years (95% CI: 2.01-2.97); between skilled non-manual and unskilled manual workers was 1.88 years (95% CI: 1.08-2.69); between workers with three or more contracts and workers with a single contract in the period was 3.78 years (95% CI: 3.28-4.29).
Conclusion: Women, non-skilled workers and employees that have had more contracts within the period of study are those with greatest loss of PYWLL. This suggests that individuals with poorer working and employment conditions could have more PYWLL.