Search results

Increasing levels of non-permanent employment have raised concern about quality of working life in the public sector. This Finnish study examines whether the public sector can be characterized as a 'model employer' with regard to the working conditions and well-being of fixed-term employees. Compared to the private sector, the difference in the physical load between non-permanent and permanent employees is significantly smaller in the public sector. Comparison of psychosocial strain shows a difference in favour of non-permanent employees, particularly among women working in the public sector. The association between type of employment contract and health is similar in both sectors. The equality between permanent and nonpermanent employees gives reason to benchmark the public sector as a model, even if the present findings may be due partly to sectorspecific occupational structures.

This study examined genetic and environmental influences on older women's personal goals by using data from the Finnish Twin Study on Aging. The interview for the personal goals was completed by 67 monozygotic (MZ) pairs and 75 dizygotic (DZ) pairs. The tetrachoric correlations for personal goals related to health and functioning, close relationships, and independent living were higher in MZ than DZ twins, indicating possible genetic influence. The pattern of tetrachoric correlations for personal goals related to cultural activities, care of others, and physical exercise indicated environmental influence. For goals concerning health and functioning, independent living, and close relationships, additive genetic effect accounted for about half of the individual variation. The rest was the result of a unique environmental effect. Goals concerning physical exercise and care of others showed moderate common environmental effect, while the rest of the variance was the result of a unique environmental effect. Personal goals concerning cultural activities showed unique environmental effects only.

AbstractWe investigated the genetic component of noise sensitivity using a twin-study design. The study sample consisted of 573 same-sexed twin pairs from the Finnish Twin Cohort. The 131 monozygotic (MZ) and 442 dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs with an age range of 31 to 88 years replied to a questionnaire on noise and health-related items in 1988. The noise sensitivity of respondents was defined as high, quite high, quite low or low. MZ pairs were more similar with regards noise sensitivity than DZ pairs, and quantitative genetic modeling indicated significant familiality. The best z-fitting genetic model provided an estimate of heritability of 36% (95% CI = .20–.50) and when hearing impaired subjects were excluded this rose to 40% (95% CI = .24–.54). In conclusion, noise sensitivity does aggregate in families and probably has a genetic component.