Type of Project: Funded project Study
Medical rehabilitation and return to work in the ageing workforce - an investigation with the lidA cohort study (acronym: lidA 4 DRV project)

One of the most important challenges for the German society in the coming years is coping with demographic change. In order to maintain the labour force and our social security systems, the state needs to keep the ageing workforce in work for longer. The probability of illness and health restrictions increases with age. Medical and occupational rehabilitation, company integration management and other company measures to maintain health and the ability to work can play an important role in the successful return to work of sick employees and in keeping older employees in work. The lidA study (leben in der Arbeit, http://www.lidA-studie.de ), which has been conducted since 2011, is a forward-looking longitudinal study (so-called prospective cohort study). Every three to four years, a representative sample of all employees born in 1959 and 1965 who are subject to social insurance contributions are surveyed on work, health, work participation and social and private circumstances. In the 4th wave of the study, a third cohort born in 1971 will be included for the first time with around 3,000 respondents. In addition, the sample of those born in 1959 and 1965 will be refreshed with newly recruited study participants to around 3,000 subjects each. In the lidA study, some questions on medical and occupational rehabilitation and occupational reintegration were already asked in waves 1-3. In the 4th wave of the lidA study, this project, which is funded by the DRV-Bund, looks in more detail at questions relating to rehabilitation and occupational reintegration. In a special rehabilitation module, the determinants, requirements, needs and utilisation of medical rehabilitation and its barriers among older employees are recorded and analysed in a differentiated manner. In addition, company integration management and company measures to maintain health and work ability as well as their determinants (e.g. level of awareness of prevention programmes) are examined in detail. The explorative and hypothesis-driven analyses based on the first three waves 2011 (nw1=6,585), 2014 (nw2=4,244) and 2018 (nw3=3,586) are followed by the hypothesis-driven detailed study with longitudinal data on rehabilitation and workplace reintegration measures based on the data from wave 4 2023 (nw4=8,884). In addition, the inclusion of three cohorts in 2022 will make it possible for the first time to compare the generations with regard to these questions.