High Incidence of Depression-related Disability Pensions Among Senior Professional Women

Main Content

Most of these disability pensions are depression related. Among younger age groups, however, also schizophrenia and other psychoses were common causes of disability pensions due mental health reasons.

The data appears in the study Occupations and disability pensions, which examined the incidence of disability pensions in the years 1997-2006.

In professional occupations, depression plays a more pronounced role in disability pensions than other diseases. In manual occupations also other diseases, musculoskeletal disorders especially, are a significant cause of disability pensions. The incidence of disability pensions among manual occupations is twice as high as among professional occupations.

The differences between occupational groups are smaller in disability pensions due to mental disorders than in disability pensions due to musculoskeletal disorders. The incidence of depression-related disability pensions was higher among women than men while there are differences between occupations. Among manual workers, disability pension due to depression was often preceded by unemployment, while in professional occupations no link between unemployment and depression-related disability pension could be discerned.

Women have a higher incidence of partial disability pension than men. Partial disability pension was most common among public sector occupations such as care workers and cleaning and building maintenance workers.

The study Occupations and disability pensions was carried out by the Rehabilitation Foundation and the Finnish Center for Pensions and is a part of the Masto Project that aims at reducing depression-related disability. The research results will be used in drafting proposals for reducing disability that will be included in the final report for the Masto Project which is due Spring 2011.

The study Occupations and disability pensions examined the incidence of disability pensions in different occupations by disease groups in the years 1997-2006. The material included data for 272,000 persons in the workforce aged around 30-64 years. The research material is based on the register data of the Statistics Finland and the Finnish Center for Pensions. The incidence of disability pensions for both men and women was highest among construction and maintenance laborers, gardeners and farm relief workers. In large professions, the incidence of disability pensions for women was high among cleaners, institution and home-based personal care workers, salespersons and farmers, while for men the incidence of disability pensions was high among motor vehicle drivers and mechanics, electrical and electronics mechanics and carpenters.