Healthy ageing in a working society.The Second Scientific Conference on Work Disability Prevention and Integration (WDPI 2012). October 22-24, 2012. Groningen

This article summarizes different topical sessions of the Second Scientific Conference on Work Disability Prevention and Integration (October 22-24, 2012, Groningen, Netherlands). The title of the congress was “healthy ageing in a working society”. Many subjects were developed in a broad range of topics and disciplines. Return to work, work ability, participation to the workforce on the one hand, and, disability, absenteeism, exclusion of the labour market, were mains transversal concepts developed on the other hand
In this paper, authors decided to highlight the return to work of cancer survivors, some interventions about musculo-skeletal disorders, mental health, and finally, ageing.
These disorders are recognized to widely contribute to occupational disability. Interventions emphasized, not only on barriers to integration or reintegration to the workforce, but also on possibilities and on levers for action and improvement in different situations.
Topics developed in this meeting will certainly increase in the future, in relation to the ageing of the workforce. Integration, reintegration, prevention of occupational exclusion are an issue in filigree in most of oral and topical sessions. The field of research about disability becomes mature and opens promising areas. Nevertheless, challenges remain at a very high level; they require new integrated approaches and solutions in conflicts between different stakeholders and approaches.