Citation

Blom V, Kallings LV, Ekblom B, Wallin P, Andersson G, Hemmingsson E, Ekblom Ö, Söderling J, Ekblom Bak E. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020; 17(2): e511.

Affiliation

Åstrand Laboratory of Work Physiology, The Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, 114 33 Stockholm, Sweden.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/ijerph17020511

PMID

31947519

Abstract

The prevalence of poor health, in particular stress-related mental ill-health, is increasing over time and birth cohorts. As rapid societal changes have occurred in the last decade and still are occurring, there is an interest in investigating the trends in health-related factors. The aim of the present study was to investigate trends in self-reported general health, overall stress, work-related stress, feelings of loneliness, and sleeping problems in 335,625 Swedish adults across categories of gender, geographic regions, length of education, and age from 2000 to 2016. On population level, sleeping problems and poor general health have increased markedly and significantly, while experiences of work stress decreased between 2000 and 2016 (p < 0.05). Overall stress and level of loneliness were unchanged (p > 0.05). The risk of having ≥3 symptoms (any of poor or very poor general health, often or very often perceived overall stress, loneliness, or sleeping problems) has increased significantly from 2000 to 2016 (ß = 1034 (1027-1040)). This increase was significantly higher in young (ß = 1052 (1038-1065)) and individuals with lower education (ß = 1056 (1037-1076)) compared to older and high length of education.

Language: en

Keywords

loneliness; public health; self-reported health; sleeping problems; stress; working population