Study objective-The study is an empirical investigation of sickness presenteeism in relation to occupation, irreplaceability, ill health, sickness absenteeism, personal income, and slimmed down organisation. Design-Cross sectional design. Setting-Swedish workforce. Participants-The study group comprised a stratified subsample of 3801 employed persons working at the time of the survey, interviewed by telephone in conjunction with Statistics Sweden's labour market surveys of August and September 1997. The response rate was 87 per cent. Main results-A third of the persons in the total material reported that they had gone to work two or more times during the preceding year despite the feeling that, in the light of their perceived state of health, they should have taken sick leave. The highest presenteeism is largely to be found in the care and welfare and education sectors (nursing and midwifery professionals, registered nurses, nursing home aides, compulsory school teachers and preschool/primary educationalists. All these groups work in sectors that have faced personnel cutbacks during the 1990s). The risk ratio (odds ratio (OR)) for sickness presenteeism in the group that has to re-do work remaining after a period of absence through sickness is 2.29 (95% CI 1.79, 2.93). High proportions of persons with upper back/neck pain and fatigue/ slightly depressed are among those with high presenteeism (p< 0.001). Occupational groups with high sickness presenteeism show high sickness absenteeism ( = 0.38; p<.01) and the hypothesis on level of pay and sickness presenteeism is also supported ( = −0.22; p<0.01). Conclusions-Members of occupational groups whose everyday tasks are to provide care or welfare services, or teach or instruct, have a substantially increased risk of being at work when sick. The link between diYculties in replacement or finding a stand in and sickness presenteeism is confirmed by study results. The categories with high sickness presenteeism experience symptoms more often than those without presenteeism. The most common combination is low monthly income, high sickness absenteeism and high sickness presenteeism.

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The aim of the study was to investigate the financial circumstances of a group of temporary employees and whether personal financial strain is related to an increased risk of ill-health. The study group consisted of 778 on-call employees. The response rate to a mailed questionnaire was 56 percent. Twenty percent of respondents stated that they had experienced economic difficulties of some kind. More than 50 percent regarded their form of employment as an impediment to obtaining a loan, and approximately 40 percent regarded it as a barrier to acquiring a housing contract. The study group is strongly polarized with regard to personal financial matters. There is a clear connection between poverty and health. Individuals who were both worried about their personal finances and objectively poor had far lower levels of psychological well-being (as measured by GHQ-12), more stomach, back, and neck complaints, more headaches, and greater tiredness and listlessness. Sleep disturbances acted as a mediating variable between financial pressure and stomach problems.

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An integrated IT technology, characterized by a change in information support from a strong specialization towards greater integration has been introduced within the surveying company in Sweden. The aim of this study is to compare and describe e V ects of the transition to this new information technology in relation to job and organizational characteristics and e V ectiveness and well-being measures between 1998 and 2000. The results show that a positive attitude to the new IT system increased from 1998 to 2000. The transition to a new IT technology had negative consequences on job content and job control in 1999 but improvements could be seen in 2000. Co-operation with clients and service quality to clients improved each year from 1998 to 2000. Generally, a positive attitude to IT integration was related to high continuous improvement practices, goal clarity and job control in all three phases. However, the relations were reduced in 1999.