Long-term sickness absence--risk indicators among occupationally active residents of a Danish county

Abstract

This study aims to identify risk factors and their prevalence in long-term sickness absence. The study is designed as a case-referent study which comprises 481 participants who have experienced a sickness absence lasting >10 weeks and a reference group of 1326 individuals in active employment. Multivariate analysis identified the following significant risk factors for men: (i) age >50 years [odds ratio (OR) = 2.4]; (ii) short period of education (OR = 2.3); (iii) unemployment within the last 3 years (OR = 1.7); (iv) heavy-duty work (OR = 2.1); (v) monotonous, repetitive work (OR = 1.7); (vi) lack of job satisfaction (OR = 2.1); and (vii) much back pain during the last 3 years (OR = 2.1). The following risk factors were identified for women: (i) leaving school without graduation (OR = 2.6); (ii) unemployment within the last 3 years (OR = 1.5); (iii) heavy-duty work (OR = 2.8); (iv) lack of influence on own job situation (OR = 2.1); and (v) much back pain within the last 3 years (OR = 1.8). It is concluded that the identification of working environment risk factors constitutes a case for improvement of the working environment which may be instrumental in reducing long-term sickness absence.

Predicting the duration of sickness absence for patients with common mental disorders in occupational health care

“…We cannot exclude that a more elaborate assessment of work-related factors may lead to different results. A low educational level proved to be predictive of long-term sickness absence in a cohort of Danish employees (22). Surprisingly, we found that a high level of education was predictive of a longer time to return to work.…”

“…Being a female increased the likelihood of return to work in two studies (8,21), while it decreased this likelihood in another study (10). Older age was predictive of not returning to work (10,13,(17)(18)(21)(22). Being divorced also decreased the likelihood of return to work (10).…”

“…To our knowledge, no comprehensive review on factors that influence return to work among employees with common mental disorders has been published. Therefore, we reviewed the literature in search of disorder-related, personal, and environmental predictor variables that fulfilled our criterion of practical value in studies on either recovery from work disability among patients with common mental disorders (7)(8)(9) or duration of sickness absence in general (10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22).…”

“…Being divorced also decreased the likelihood of return to work (10). A higher educational level increased the chance of return to work (18,22). Positive recovery expectations were associated with a shorter duration of the sickness absence (11)(12).…”

Dose–response relation between perceived physical exertion during healthcare work and risk of long-term sickness absence

“…Previous studies point toward an association between perceived psychosocial work conditions and sickness absence (17,25,(33)(34)(35). It can be speculated that a general negative social climate makes employees more prone to report higher physical exertion or that psychosocial work factors per se are associated with sickness absence.…”