Sickness absence: Could gender divide be explained by occupation, income, mental distress and health?

Abstract

We have not explained why women have more sickness absence than men, either by work-related factors or by general health or mental distress. Factors explaining the gender divide should be sought elsewhere.

Sickness absence among young employees: trends from 2002 to 2013

“…This higher rate among women has been attributed to different occupations 10) , psychosocial 11) and physical work demands 12) , working conditions 13) , and work-family imbalance 14) . However, according to some findings, the gender divide cannot be attributed to a tendency among women to have a less healthy working envi-ronment than men 15) , and family-related factors also show only weak associations with SA 12) . Pregnant women 16) and young women with children 17) have high SA rates.…”

Gender differences in sickness absence – the contribution of occupation and workplace

“…One approach is to adjust statistically for various working conditions and assess whether the adjustment narrows or even eliminates the gender differences (4,17). A limitation of this procedure is that all working conditions cannot be measured or can be measured only partially.…”

Work-related gender differences in physician-certified sick leave: a prospective study of the general working population in Norway

“…Controlling for occupation by means of fixed regression explained approximately 40% of the excess risk among female civil servants (25), whereas controlling for occupation had the opposite effect in the general working population study and slightly increased the gender difference (22). However, a study from Oslo concluded that differences related to working conditions or occupation could not explain the observed gender differences in sick leave spells >16 days (26). Hence, the effect of occupation and working conditions on gender differences in sick leave of varying length is inconclusive.…”

“…Moreover, the combined effect of psychosocial factors and occupation explained nearly two-fifths of excess risk of LTSL among women in the present study. A population study from Oslo concluded that the gender differences in sick leave could not be explained by specific working conditions (26); however, that study measured work-related psychosocial factors on two dimensions (low job control and shift work) and used a very crude measure of seven occupational groups. Studies that have applied a different statistical approach (fixed regression analyses) to control for detailed occupation groups have explained approximately 40% of the excess risk of physician-certified sick leave among female civil servants in Norway (22) and 30-50% of the excess risk among female municipal workers in Finland (24).…”