(in German)

The high incidence of cognitive impairments in the aging population together with the challenges it imposes on health systems raise the question of what impact working life has on cognitive abilities in general and in old age. To tell whether there is an association between psychosocial work conditions and cognitive functioning, a systematic literature review was undertaken including cohort studies, case-control studies, and randomized controlled trials.

Literature search in PubMed and PsycInfo was based on a thoroughly defined search string and strict exclusion and inclusion criteria. Evaluation of the initially identified 4,426 search hits by two independent reviewers and a detailed quality assessment finally resulted in 17 studies with a good quality score. Evidence was found for high job control, napping in nightshifts, work complexity with people and with data as beneficial factors and long working hours as risk factors for cognitive abilities. Evidence of an impact on cognition for most on the occupational characteristics, however, was only based on results of one or two studies and needs to be validated further. There is an urgent need of additional studies addressing this issue in order to arrive at a firm conclusion about the impact of psychosocial work conditions on cognitive abilities.

Please download the complete report "Systematic review concerning 'cognitive efficiency in the context of the world of work'" (in German only).