Sick Absence in a Swedish Gompany Part Iv

Lokander, Sven; Machl, Margareta

doi:10.1111/j.1600-0447.1964.tb07493.x

Cited by 6 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 2 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…With a general increase in hours of work or compulsory overtime an increase in the level of absence might be expected, and previous research (Medical Research Council, 1942) has demonstrated that this is so. However, Lokander (1962) found no systematic relation between overtime and sickness absence, and Buzzard and Liddell (1963) have shown results similar to our own in that coal miners who worked high overtime and many Saturday shifts tended to have least absence during the normal working week. Management commonly believes that high overtime is associated with high absence, particularly short-term absence, and many of the managers of the three working groups alleged that high overtime and high absence were linked, but there was no evidence of this at all.…”

Section: Shiftsupporting

confidence: 69%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Absence from work in relation to the length and distribution of shift hours.

Walker¹

1970

Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Walker, J., and de la Mare, Gwynneth (1971). Brit. J. industr. Med., 28, 36-44. Absence from work in relation to length and distribution of shift hours. A long period on night shift or even permanent night work has sometimes been suggested for those on continuous shift work to allow circadian rhythms to adapt. As the weekly hours of work have been reduced there is some evidence that a permanent night shift is practical, and about 12% of all shift workers are on this type of work. However, the case for permanent night shift must be established on grounds of both effectiveness and acceptability.The present studycompares the absence experience, including sickness absence, ofpermanent day workers and permanent night workers matched for age and job in three undertakings which contained a range of working conditions.The question of the relationship between absence from work and total hours worked including overtime has been reopened, and in comparing absence from work according to the type of shift the total hours worked must also be taken into account. The relationship between the average hours when a man was at work and the amount of absence was tested. The men in the three undertakings worked a wide range of voluntary overtime.The results showed that in two undertakings long-term absence, mainly sickness absence, was higher on the night shift than on the day shift; and, in the third, absence was about the same on the two shifts. As the work load was less in the two undertakings with a higher absence on the night shift it was suggested that selective factors were operating. These results may be contrasted to studies which have compared the absence of rotating shift workers and day workers.In all three undertakings there was a tendency for absence to be less among high overtime workers than among those who worked medium or small amounts of overtime, although the trends were not consistent. There was no evidence at all that high overtime and absence from work were positively associated.The implications of these results are discussed.During recent years there has been an increase in the tends to emerge is that absence rates are higher amount of shift working in industry and this has led among day workers than among shift workers to greater interest in the human problems associated (Wyatt and Marriott, 1953) and the result is conwith abnormal hours. One question which arises is firmed in sickness absence studies (Thiis-Evensen, whether shift work affects absence from work, in-1958;Aanonsen, 1964;Taylor, 1967Taylor, , 1968b. The cluding sickness absence. Reviews of previous research has, in general, been carried out on men research (Andlauer and Fourre, 1962;Menzel, 1962)

show abstract

Section: Shiftsupporting

confidence: 69%

“…This has not been confirmed recently with respect to sickness absence in relation to overtime (Lokander, 1962;Taylor, 1968a). The present paper examines the relationship between absence from work and attendance including voluntary overtime.…”

mentioning

confidence: 79%

Absence from work in relation to the length and distribution of shift hours.

Walker¹

1970

Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…178-9), however, shows heterogeneity for both attendances (2 = 39-017; d.f.= 2; P < 0 001) and visits 62 91 789; d.f.= 2; P < 0 001). Such heterogeneity of the coefficients (especially with lower values for non-contiguous years, as on the present data) has been noted previously for accidents (Farmer andChambers, 1929, 1939;Farmer, Chambers, and Kirk, 1933;Hilkkinen, 1958;Cresswell and Froggatt, 1963) and sickness episodes or absence from work (Snow, 1913;Lokander, 1962;Froggatt, 1967), which are phenomena where a proneness element is generally agree4 to operate and, as noted above, provided this heterogeneity is moderate it is held to be not incompatible with proneness under real-life conditions (Irwin, 1964). Despite the heterogeneity of the correlations on the present data we note ( Newbold (1927) and Arboue and Sichel (1954a, b) have shown that the expected sorrelation coefficient (p) cn be calculated from the parameters of the negative binomial distribution for the first (or second) period and so allow prediction as to future experience to be nade from existing datg, its power depending on the value of p. This is of great practical importance.…”

Section: Hypothesis Dsupporting

confidence: 84%

“…Such heterogeneity of the coefficients (especially with lower values for non-contiguous years, as on the present data) has been noted previously for accidents (Farmer andChambers, 1929, 1939;Farmer, Chambers, and Kirk, 1933;Hilkkinen, 1958;Cresswell and Froggatt, 1963) and sickness episodes or absence from work (Snow, 1913;Lokander, 1962;Froggatt, 1967), which are phenomena where a proneness element is generally agree4…”

Section: Hypothesis Dsupporting

confidence: 84%

“…Furthermore, none dealt in detail with data from more than one period. When frequency distributions of repeated events of "morbidity" have previously been analysed the data have been compiled either from records of absence from work (Snow, 1913;Newbold, 1927;Lundberg, 1940;Russell, Whitwell, and Ryle, 1947;Sutherland and Whitwell, 1948;Arbous and Sichel, 1954a, b;Fortuin, 1955;Hinkle and Wolff, 1957;Simpson, 1962;Lokander, 1962;Froggatt, 1964Froggatt, -65, 1967Taylor, 1967) or-since the fundamental work of Greenwood (1910), Troup and Maynard (1912), Pearson (1912), and McKendrick (1912)-from data on recurrent attacks of disease, e.g. the "common cold" (Gafafer and Doull, 1933;Wilson and Worcester, 1944).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Consultations in general practice. Analysis of individual frequencies.

Froggatt¹,

Dudgeon²,

Merrett³

1969

Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Short-term absence from industry: III The inference of `proneness' and a search for causes

Froggatt

1970

Occupational and Environmental Medicine

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Froggatt, P. (1970). Brit. J. industr. Med., 27, 297-312. Short-term absence from industry. IH. The inference of 'proneness' and a search for causes. The abilities of five hypotheses ('chance', 'proneness', and three of 'true contagion' -as defined in the text) to explain the distributions of one-day and two-day absences among groups of male and female industrial personnel and clerks in government service are examined by curve-fitting and correlation methods. The five hypotheses generate (in order) the Poisson, negative binomial, Neyman type A, Short, and Hermite (two-parameter form) distributions which are fitted to the data using maximum-likelihood estimates. The conclusion is drawn that 'proneness', i.e., a stable 'liability', compounded from several though unquantifiable factors, and constant for each individual over the period of the study, is markedly successful in explaining the data. It is emphasized that some of the other hypotheses under test cannot be unequivocably rejected; and there is in theory an infinite number, still unformulated or untested, which may be acceptable or even fit the data better.Correlation coefficients for the numbers of one-day (and two-day) absences taken by the same individuals in two equal non-overlapping periods of time are of the order 0 5 to 0*7 (0 3 to 0 5 for two-day absences) and the corresponding regressions fulfil linear requirements. These correlations are higher than any between 'personal characteristics' and their overt consequence in contingent fields of human enquiry. For one-day absences the predictive power for the future from the past record could in some circumstances justify executive action.When freely available, overtime was greatest among junior married men and least among junior married women.The validity of the inference of 'proneness' and the implications of its acceptance are fully discussed. While interpretation is not unequivocal, one-day absences seemingly have many causes; two-day absences are also heterogeneous but in some ways resemble longer certified absence.It is concluded that short-term absence, particularly of one day, may be largely the overt expression of a traditional desire, even need, to work discontinuously which, though it can be mitigated by often identifiable general and individual circumstances, is consistently more marked in some individuals than in others.In two previous papers (Froggatt, 1970b, c) I have also of lateness, sickness absence, passes from work, reviewed the literature, defined terms and described age, length of service, and other factors. In the the data, delimited the study groups on the basis of present paper I apply curve-fitting and correlation sex, marital status, supervisory grade and employ-techniques to examine the adequacy of five plausible ment class, and studied many statistics in these hypotheses adduced to explain the (discrete) distribugroups mainly of one-day and two-day absences but tions of one-day and two-day absences among the 297

show abstract

Sick Absence in a Swedish Gompany Part Iv

Cited by 6 publications

References 2 publications

Absence from work in relation to the length and distribution of shift hours.

Absence from work in relation to the length and distribution of shift hours.

Consultations in general practice. Analysis of individual frequencies.

Short-term absence from industry: III The inference of `proneness' and a search for causes

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About