RE: Healthy Worker Effect

[John Goldsmith <gjohn@bgumail.bgu.ac.il>]

	The phrase "Healthy worker effect" was coined by McMichael, Haynes 
and Tyroler in a letter to the Journal of Occupational Medicine Vol 17, p. 
131, 1975.  It was part of a  response to a letter of mine entitled "What 
do we Expect from an Occupational Cohort" in the same Journal p. 126.  
The principal source of such effects comes when working populations are 
compared with the general population, a portion of which is not capable 
of working. We often wish the phrase could have been "Unhealthy 
non-working effect."  For practical purposes, cancer mortality is less 
influenced than many other conditions, since cancer is not that much 
different in working and non-working populations.  The effect for overall 
mortality is about such that working populations should have 80% of the 
mortality of the general population.  In a number of studies it has been 
shown to decrease as the employed group is followed.
 Gjohn@bgumail.bgu.ac.il  John Goldsmith, Ben Gurion University