{
  "abstract": "Background As the new delayed retirement policy takes effect in China, middle-aged and older workers will contribute to a larger proportion of China’s workforce. Meanwhile, the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) in China is increasing. This study aims to examine the age trajectories of MetS components within different employment groups among Chinese middle-aged and older workers.Methods Data from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study 2011–2016 were utilised. Analytical sample comprised 3,846 participants in sample I (physical examination sample) and 2,966 participants in sample II (blood sample). Employment status was categorised into six groups (non-agricultural groups: employed, self-employed, and retired, and agricultural groups: employed, self-employed, and retired). Multilevel growth curve models were estimated to investigate the age trajectories of MetS factors (systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), waist circumference, triglycerides (TGs), high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, fasting glucose) according to employment status, allowing for random intercepts and random slopes. MetS factors and covariates including age, self-rated health, and BMI were allowed to be time-varying. Sex, education, household income, marital status, residence type defined by household registration status (urban, migrant, rural), regions, smoking status, and alcohol consumption were time-invariant. Given the hierarchical data structure, two-fold fully conditional specification (two-fold FCS) algorithm was applied to handle missing data in covariates to reduce risk of collinearity and improve prediction. Two-fold FCS was combined with inverse-probability weighting and all the results were adjusted for sample weights.Results Differences were observed in the baseline levels and age trajectories of MetS factors among the six employment groups, as well as between males and females. At baseline, males and females in agricultural groups had lower average waist circumference, and males in these groups had higher HDL cholesterol than their non-agricultural counterparts. There was no unified pattern in differences in age trajectories of MetS factors between these employment groups, although the results suggested larger differences at older ages, particularly in the case of waist circumference, DBP, TGs, and HDL cholesterol. Other differences were less pronounced.Conclusion Differences in the age trajectories of MetS factors among various employment groups were more pronounced at older ages, while the differences for those aged under 60 years were relatively small. To alleviate the public health burden associated with chronic diseases and ageing population, as well as to increase labour supply, policies should be implemented to improve health conditions of middle-aged and older Chinse workforce and reduce premature employment exits.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Research Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Yuwei Pan"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Research Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Hynek Pikhart"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Research Centre for Toxic Compounds in the Environment, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic"
      ],
      "name": "Anna Bartoskova Polcrova"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Research Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Martin Bobak"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Research Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Jitka Pikhartova"
    }
  ],
  "title": "P101 Employment status and age trajectories of metabolic syndrome factors: evidence from China health and retirement longitudinal study 2011–2016",
  "uid": "a8d27bda-2a42-5bbb-8688-55b40d8b195a"
}