Social Support as a Predictor of Disability Pension: The Finnish Health 2000 Study

Objective: Social support at work and in private life was examined as a predictor of disability pension in the population-based Finnish Health 2000 study. Methods: Social support was measured in a nationally representative sample comprising of 3414 employees aged 30 to 64 years. Disability pensions extracted from the registers of the Finnish Centre for Pensions were followed up across 6 years. Results: Low social support from supervisors was associated with disability pension with an odds ratio of 1.70 (95% confidence interval, 1.21 to 2.38) when adjusted with sociodemographic and health behavior variables. After adjustment for baseline perceived health, the associations between supervisor support and disability pension strongly attenuated. Conclusions: Low social support from supervisors predicts forthcoming work disability but the relationship is affected by self-reported nonoptimal health at baseline.