Sick at work: methodological problems with research on workplace presenteeism

Gerich, Joachim

doi:10.1007/s10742-014-0131-z

Cited by 21 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…The PP assesses how often a person chooses presenteeism over sickness absence regardless of their general health condition. 14 The number of days worked while ill was measured by the question: 'Over the past 12 months how many working days did you work when you were sick?' The number of days with illness was the sum of days worked while ill and days of sickness-related absence.…”

Section: Sickness Presenteeismmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The presenteeism propensity is the state-of-the-art measure to analyse decision-based determinants of presenteeism. 14…”

Section: Strengths and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To investigate both research questions, we relied on survey data from 20 974 employees nested within 232 European regions combined with official data on regional unemployment rates obtained from Eurostat. In contrast to studies on unemployment and sickness absence, we measure presenteeism directly by the number of days worked while ill in relation to the total number of days with illness, the so-called presenteeism propensity, 14 which allows assessing how often workers chose sickness presence over sickness absence, independently of a person's general health condition. Further, the use of a broad data set including an almost exhaustive number of European countries allowed us to draw conclusions about Europe as a whole that would not be possible with singlecountry studies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Working while sick in context of regional unemployment: a Europe-wide cross-sectional study

Reuter

Dragano

Wahrendorf

2020

J Epidemiol Community Health

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BackgroundResearch suggests that areas with high unemployment have lower rates of sickness absence, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. One assumption is that when unemployment is high people are more likely to work while being sick (discipline hypothesis). Against this background, we investigate the association between regional unemployment and sickness presenteeism. Second, we study interactions with factors of occupational disadvantage.MethodsWe combined survey data of 20 974 employees collected 2015 in 232 regions from 35 European countries with data on regional unemployment rates obtained from Eurostat. Presenteeism was assessed by the fraction of days worked while ill among all days with illness (presenteeism propensity). To investigate if unemployment was related to presenteeism, we estimated multi-level models (individuals nested in regions) that were adjusted for socio-demographic and occupational covariates to account for compositional differences of the regions.ResultsThe mean presenteeism propensity was 34.8 (SD 40.4), indicating that workers chose presenteeism in 1 out of 3 days with sickness. We found that a change in unemployment by +10 percentage points was associated with a change in presenteeism by +5 percentage points (95% CI 1.2 to 8.6). This relationship was more pronounced among workers with low salary, low skill-level, and industrial and healthcare workers.ConclusionOur results support the assumption that high unemployment elevates presenteeism, and that people in disadvantaged occupations are particularly affected. Policies managing presenteeism should consider the labour market context, particularly during the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Section: Sickness Presenteeismmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The presenteeism propensity is the state-of-the-art measure to analyse decision-based determinants of presenteeism. 14…”

Section: Strengths and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Working while sick in context of regional unemployment: a Europe-wide cross-sectional study

Reuter

Dragano

Wahrendorf

2020

J Epidemiol Community Health

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“…Therefore, before the decision-making process is analyzed, employees without health complaints should be excluded from the analysis dataset. Participants in good health do not undergo a decision-making process, which needs to be considered before either SP or SA is selected [ 27 ]. Another method of analyzing the likelihood of SP selection is to use the presenteeism propensity (PP), which is the ratio of SP days to the total number of health events (or the sum of SP and SA days).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Association between employment status and sickness presenteeism among Korean employees: a cross-sectional study

Park

Cho

Lee

et al. 2020

Ann Occup Environ Med

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Background Sickness presenteeism (SP) indicates “going to work while being ill.” The importance of SP has only recently been investigated, and the association between SP and employment status has been inconsistent across studies. Therefore, we conducted this study to explore the association between SP and employment status by using presenteeism propensity (PP), which can reflect the individual decision-making process. Methods The study population included employees participating in the 5th Korean Working Condition Survey. We analyzed data of only employees with at least one health event, which was calculated as the sum of SP and sickness absenteeism days. Employment status was grouped into 3 categories: stable employment, unstable employment (contract period ≥ 1 year), and unstable employment (contract period < 1 year). Survey-weighted logistic regression analysis was conducted to assess the association between employment status and PP (dichotomized as “≤ 0.5” and “> 0.5”). Results Unstable employees (contract period ≥ 1 year) had higher odds of PP than stable employees (odds ratio [OR]: 1.23, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.03–1.47), whereas unstable employees (contract period < 1 year) had lower odds of PP than stable employees (OR: 0.82, 95% CI: 0.71–0.96). Conclusions Employment status was associated with SP. Given the negative health impact of SP, social efforts, such as paid sick leave, are required to reduce SP and enhance the health status of unstable workers.

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“…Zur Analyse des Entscheidungsverhaltens zwischen den beiden Optionen des Krankenstands und Präsentismus im Falle einer gesundheitlichen Beeinträchtigung wurde aus beiden Merkmalen eine Schätzung der Präsentismus-Neigung (Präsentis-mus-Propensity) berechnet (Gerich, 2014a(Gerich, , 2014b Weiterhin wurden bivariate Zusammenhänge zwischen den angegebenen Symptomen und den Präsentismustagen, Absentismustagen, dem subjektivem Gesundheitszustand und der Präsentismus-Propensity mittels biseraler Korrelation untersucht. Differenzen zwischen zwei Korrelationen erfolgten anhand eines z-Tests auf Gleichheit korrelierter Korrelationen (Meng, Rosenthal, & Rubin, 1992).…”

Section: Merkmaleunclassified

Krankenstand und Präsentismus als betriebliche Gesundheitsindikatoren

Gerich¹

2015

German Journal of Human Resource Management

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Krankheitsbedingte Fehlzeiten in Unternehmen werden im Rahmen des betrieblichen Gesundheitsmanagements häufig als Gesundheitsindikatoren der Belegschaft herangezogen. In einer Querschnittserhebung bei einer Zufallsstichprobe von pflichtversicherten Arbeitnehmer/innen in Oberösterreich (n = 930) zeigt sich jedoch, dass der subjektive Gesundheitszustand von Arbeitnehmer/innen deutlich besser durch Prä-sentismushäufigkeiten (arbeiten trotz Krankheit) als durch Fehlzeiten prognostiziert werden kann. Präsentismus ist im Vergleich zu Krankenstand stärker mit MagenDarm-Beschwerden, Muskel-Skelett-Beschwerden, Migräne sowie psychischen Beschwerden assoziiert, welche zugleich wichtige Determinanten der Gesundheitseinschätzung darstellen. Personen entscheiden sich im Krankheitsfall generell und bei Migräne und psychischen Beschwerden im Besonderen häufiger für Präsentismus als für Krankenstand. Speziell bei geringen Krankenstandshäufigkeiten sollten Krankenstandsstatistiken durch Schätzungen der Präsentismushäufigkeiten ergänzt werden. Es ist davon auszugehen, dass insbesondere der psychische Gesundheitszustand besser durch Präsentismus als durch Fehlzeiten abgeschätzt werden kann. Sickness absence rates and presenteeism as work-related indicators of healthData on sickness absence is frequently used as a health indicator of employees. Based on a cross-sectional analysis with a random sample of employees covered by the Upper Austrian Sickness Fund (n = 930), it is shown that presenteeism (attending work despite illness) is a better indicator of health states than sickness absence. Compared to sickness absence, presenteeism is more strongly associated with gastro-intestinal complaints, musculoskeletal complaints, migraine, and mental ill-health, which are likewise strong determinants of subjective health. People with health complaints in general and with migrane and mental ill-health in particular have a higher propensity to favour presenteeism over sickness absence. Especially when rates of sickness absence are low, it is recommended to complement sickness absence data with estimates of presenteeism. It is assumed that presenteeism is a better estimator of mental health in particular.

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Sick at work: methodological problems with research on workplace presenteeism

Cited by 21 publications

References 13 publications

Working while sick in context of regional unemployment: a Europe-wide cross-sectional study

Working while sick in context of regional unemployment: a Europe-wide cross-sectional study

Association between employment status and sickness presenteeism among Korean employees: a cross-sectional study

Krankenstand und Präsentismus als betriebliche Gesundheitsindikatoren

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