Cohort profile: Description of the GIG-OSH longitudinal cohort on occupational safety and health of digital platforms workers in Europe

ABSTRACT Purpose The GIG-OSH cohort was established to investigate the impact of digital platform work on occupational safety and health (OSH), working and employment conditions, and health in seven countries in Europe. Participants The cohort comprises 3,945 digital platform workers from seven European countries. The sample includes both web-based workers (e.g., micro-tasking, freelance design) and on-location workers (e.g., delivery, transport). Participants were recruited using non-probabilistic sampling strategies tailored to national contexts, including social media advertising, recruitment through micro-task platforms, and on-site field outreach. Multidimensional data have been collected through online surveys (implemented via REDCap) covering sociodemographic characteristics, working and employment conditions, psychosocial risks, algorithmic management, and physical and mental health indicators. Findings to date Participants had a mean age of 32.6 years at baseline (SD 10.4), and the majority are male (58.8%), with a higher concentration of migrants in on-location tasks (62.2%) compared to web-based tasks (48.8%). Regarding educational attainment, 55.4% of the total cohort holds a tertiary degree, reaching 64.4% among web-based workers. Platform work intensity varies significantly: on-location workers averaged 85.4 hours of work in the last month, while web-based workers averaged 47.0 hours. Mean income from platform work as a percentage of the national median was 20.6% (SD 22.2). The mean WHO-5 Well-Being Index score was 58.7 (SD 20.3), which is notably lower than the European general population average (69.4), indicating poorer mental health outcomes among cohort members. Future plans The GIG-OSH cohort represents the first large-scale, longitudinal study examining occupational safety and health among digital platform workers across multiple European countries. Future waves will prioritize developing precise tools to measure hourly earnings and unpaid waiting time. Future research should aim to include underrepresented subgroups, such as medical and domestic care workers, and explore potential linkage with administrative records to evaluate long-term health trajectories and the impact of new EU labour regulations. Strengths and limitations of this study This is the first large-scale longitudinal cohort to examine occupational safety and health among platform workers across multiple European countries, addressing an important evidence gap. The inclusion of both web-based and on-location workers enables comparative analyses across diverse task types, employment conditions, and national contexts. Recruitment strategies tailored to national contexts enhanced feasibility but limited the representativeness of samples and precluded national-level weighting or benchmarking. High attrition between waves and the absence of harmonized classifications (e.g., education levels) across countries may constrain the generalizability and longitudinal consistency of findings. Despite relying on self-reported data, the study used stakeholder-informed instruments and captured a wide range of occupational hazards—such as psychosocial and algorithmic risks—not typically addressed in conventional labour surveys.