Comprehensive national register data enables the monitoring of the working-age population’s health and work ability. The register data also enables the reliable identification of different occupational groups and the evaluation of health care appointments and absences associated with different illnesses. Especially in physically demanding occupations, the prevalence of mental health problems and the resulting absences can vary over time and between different occupational groups. We monitored people who worked as agricultural entrepreneurs, fishermen and reindeer herders in 2010—2021 according to register data. We conducted the review by gender, age and area of residence.
Description
The analyses were carried out using the State of Work Ability in Finland data, which is a national population sample that covers 90 per cent of working-age people (18—68-year-olds). The data enables the monitoring of specialist health care appointments, sickness absences and disability pensions in different occupational groups. The data presented here includes all permanent residents of Finland between the ages of 18–68 who were employed at the end of each year under review (as their main type of activity in the last week of the year). The register data is based on the data provided by Statistics Finland, Kela, the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) and the Finnish Centre for Pensions. The follow-up covers the years 2010–2021, for which the occupational data of Statistics Finland is comprehensive and comparable. For 2020 and 2021, individuals who turned 18 have been excluded. Therefore, the youngest individuals included in the data for this time period are 19–20-year-olds. The analyses have been carried out for both the data as a whole and grouped by gender, age (18—29, 30—39, 40—49, 50—59 and 60—68 years of age) and residential area (Helsinki-Uusimaa, Southern Finland & Åland, Western Finland and Northern and Eastern Finland).
The persons have been grouped as follows using professional information and information about the MYEL insurance:
| Group | Group description | Group interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | MYEL-insured employees engaged in agriculture, fishing or reindeer herding* who are not insured under any other employment pension law | Full-time agricultural entrepreneurs, fishermen and reindeer herders without secondary employment |
| 2 | MYEL-insured employees not engaged in agriculture, fishing or reindeer herding* who are not insured under any other employment pension law | Other full-time MYEL-insured employees (incl. forest owners, excluding grant recipients) without secondary employment |
| 3 | MYEL-insured employees engaged in agriculture, fishing or reindeer herding* who are also insured under some other employment pension law | Full-time agricultural entrepreneurs, fishermen and reindeer herders with also a secondary employment |
| 4 | MYEL-insured employees not engaged in agriculture, fishing or reindeer herding* who are also insured under some other employment pension law | Other full-time or part-time employed persons with MYEL insurance |
| 5 | Employed persons who are not insured under the MYEL Act | Other employed persons |
*Names and codes of the occupations included in the review (occupational classification 2010): ▼
What the indicators describe
The specialist health care visits include all visits recorded in the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare’s Hilmo system for each year (2010—2021), regardless of the treatment period’s duration. The visit is included if it has a main diagnosis and speciality information other than general medicine or missing information.
The share of sickness absence benefit periods refers to the share of employees who have had at least one sickness absence benefit period paid by Kela (longer than 10 days) during the year under review. All sickness absence benefit periods that extended to the year under review by at least one day were included in the analysis, but partial sickness absence benefits and YEL allowance were omitted.
The share of people receiving newly granted disability pensions in the two-year follow-up includes individuals who were employed in the year under review but received disability pension during the next two years. For example, the statistics for 2010 include all individuals who were employed that year but received disability pension either in 2011 or 2012. The disability pension data used was either obtained from Kela’s data on pensions paid or from the Finnish Centre for Pensions’ pension register. The disability pension data includes all individuals who received disability pension for at least one month during the two-year follow-up period. The data includes full disability pension that is payable indefinitely and fixed-term full rehabilitation subsidy.
