Aging, health, work: Overview and methodology of the VISAT prospective study

Abstract

This article presents the objectives and methodology of a French prospective study on aging, health, and work called VISAT. Its purpose is to examine hypotheses on how and to what extent working conditions favorably or unfavorably influence the availability of an individual's physiological and psychological resources, including cognitive ones, in relation to how aging also affects those resources. The study is based on data gathered during the yearly health examinations of a sample of 3,237 employees 32, 42, 52, and 62 years old at the time of the first data collection in 1996. The group of 62-year-olds was mainly comprised of retired people. A second wave of data collection is began in 2001. The data includes information about past and present work situations, medical data and measures supplied by occupational physicians, and aspects of life outside of work.