Longitudinal study on working hours in the public social and healthcare sector ("Sote-työajat" cohort)

The study started in 2012 in organisations that participated in the follow-up study of personnel in the municipal and well-being sector, and it will continue in new well-being services counties from 2023 onwards. 

1. Working hours in the public social and healthcare sector within hospital districts and municipalities

This so-called old cohort includes the six cities with over 100,000 inhabitants that participated in the Kunta10 study until the end of 2022 and their five neighbouring cities: Espoo, Helsinki, Vantaa, Tampere, Turku, Oulu, Raisio, Nokia, Valkeakoski, Naantali and Virrat. In addition, the hospital districts of Kanta-Häme, Southwest Finland, Vaasa and Pirkanmaa, together with the joint municipal welfare district of Forssa and the Jakobstad Department of Social Services and Health Care.

2. Working hours in wellbeing services counties 

Since 2023, the cohort has also included well-being services counties. So far, data has been collected from seven well-being services counties and the social and healthcare services of one city: Keusote, LUVN, OmaHäme, Pirkanmaa, Pohde, Varha, Kymenlaakso and the City of Helsinki as part of the Mental Health Toolkit project, in connection with which these well-being services counties received feedback on working hour loading per work unit.

The public social and healthcare sector working hours cohort consists of data accumulated from daily work hour data in the Titania® (CGI Finland)'s shift planning system

• (including both planned and realised hours)
•  shift requests
• sickness absences (without diagnoses)
• administrative data related to shift planning units and the related organisational environment 
• data regarding the use of shift planning software. 

The data also includes the employees' 

• age
• gender
• profession 
• work unit. 

Based on the start and end times of the work shifts, the working hour data is classified into morning, day, evening, and night shifts, as well as according to the length and order of the work shifts. There are several of these working hour characteristics, including indicators related to the length, timing, intensity, recovery, and social dimensions of working hours. 

In addition, as a separate entity, the data from the cohort’s first part has been combined with employee responses from the Finnish Public Sector study (FPS) and other register data, such as occupational accidents and disability pensions (permission from the HUS Regional Committee on Medical Research Ethics HUS/1210/2016).

The “Sote-työajat” Cohort has been utilised in more than ten research projects funded by the Finnish Work Environment Fund, the Research Council of Finland, NordForsk and the EU. More than 40 publications have been produced based on the cohort.

Studies based on the cohort have provided detailed information on the associations between shift scheduling and different shift characteristics and health, sickness absence, occupational accidents, morbidity and productivity.

Based on the research findings, the Working Time Traffic Light Model has been developed. The model is used by most organisations participating in the “Sote-työajat” Cohort and has also been integrated into shift scheduling software other than Titania.

The recommendations issued by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health based on the “Sote-työakat” Cohort enable shift planners to apply research evidence in practical shift scheduling.

Organisations participating in the “Sote-työajat” Cohort have continued to receive regular feedback on their actual working hours through a register-based recovery calculator developed for them, through separate feedback reports, and through the occupational accident risk calculator.

The research findings have also been utilised in the development and revision of collective agreements, national and international recommendations, and Finland’s Working Time Act. In addition, the findings have been incorporated into guidelines and recommendations for occupational health services on screening for and preventing the adverse health effects of night work.

The results of the “Sote-työajat” Cohort for 2008–2022 can be viewed and the data downloaded from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health’s Work-Life Knowledge Service.

The use and impact of the research cohort findings and the Working Time Traffic Light Model on working hours, occupational health and safety are described in the publication Working time traffic light recommendations: development, use, and implementation in the Finnish social and healthcare (Industrial Health, 2026, Volume 64, Issue 3, pp. 214–232).