• Areas of Expertise:
  • Business and society
  • Diversity
  • Employment status
  • Gender
  • Health
  • Human capital
  • Industrial change
  • Industrial relations
  • Labour market
  • Participation at work
  • Population and society
  • Quality of life
  • Quality of work
  • Social cohesion
  • Social protection
  • Time
  • Work-life balance
  • Work organisation

Health

Overview

Eurofound has explored the area of health, in the broader sense, by examining the physical, mental and social well-being of workers, including illness and disability issues. More recently, research has focused on young people with disabilities or health problems.

In relation to workplace health, there are three main issues to be considered: health problems; risk exposure; and work organisation. Foundation studies have identified that the two most frequent work-related health problems are musculoskeletal disorders, and stress, depression and anxiety problems. An ageing workforce is also a significant factor in any examination of health-related problems in the workplace.

With Europe's ageing population and declining rates of fertility, the need for better health care and social services is set to increase dramatically. The European Monitoring Centre on Change highlights these contributing factors, as well as outlining visions for the future and their policy implications. On the subject of healthcare and care workers, recent research from the European Quality of Life Survey provides an analysis of the views and experiences of citizens in relation to health and care services in the 'new' Europe.