Sickness absence patterns and trends in the health care sector: 5-year monitoring of female municipal employees in the health and care sectors in Norway and Denmark

Abstract

BackgroundSickness absence is a growing public health problem in Norway and Denmark, with the highest absence rates being registered in Norway. We compared time trends in sickness absence patterns of municipal employees in the health and care sectors in Norway and Denmark.MethodsData from 2004 to 2008 were extracted from the personnel registers of the municipalities of Kristiansand, Norway, and Aarhus, Denmark, for 3,181 and 8,545 female employees, respectively. Age-specific comparative statistics on sickness absence rates (number of calendar days of sickness absence/possible working days) and number of sick leave episodes were calculated for each year of the study period.ResultsThere was an overall increasing trend in sickness absence rates in Denmark (P = 0.002), where rates were highest in the 20–29- (P = 0.01) and 50–59-year-old age groups (P = 0.03). Sickness absence rates in Norway were stable, except for an increase in the 20–29-year-old age group (P = 0.004). In both Norway and Denmark, the mean number of sick leave episodes increased (P <0.0001 and P <0.0001, respectively) in all age groups except for the 30–39- and 60–67-year-old age groups. The proportion of employees without sickness absence was higher in Norway than in Denmark. Both short-term and long-term absence increased in Denmark (P = 0.003 and P <0.0001, respectively), while in Norway, only short-term absence increased (P = 0.09).ConclusionsWe found an overall increase in sickness absence rates in Denmark, while the largest overall increase in sick leave episodes was found in Norway. In both countries, the largest increases were observed among young employees. The results indicate that the two countries are converging in regard to sickness absence measured as rates and episodes.

Nurse absenteeism: An analysis of trends and perceptions of nurse unit managers

“…Older nurses are affected by chronic illnesses that characterize advanced age but the findings reveal that they are more committed to their work. It is surprising to have more sickness-related absence for younger staff than older staff but such a trend was also confirmed by Krane et al (2014).…”

“…The findings also reveal that absenteeism is more common with younger nurses than older nurses, anecdotally attributed to lower levels of commitment by younger nurses. Previous research has reported this issue (Krane et al, 2014). Older nurses are affected by chronic illnesses that characterize advanced age but the findings reveal that they are more committed to their work.…”

“…This correlates to a recent study in Italy where absenteeism was related to influenza outbreaks (Gianino et al, ). Sickness is arguably one of the dominant drivers of absenteeism (Krane et al, ; Murray et al, ). The presence of a school holiday period in July, when winter is at its peak, may have contributed to the high absenteeism hours seen that month.…”

“…Good health has a direct relationship with attendance and bad health has an inverse relationship with work attendance (Boamah & Laschinger, 2015;Krane et al, 2014). Musculoskeletal problems are among the key pathologies that HCW (mainly nurses) tend to cite for periods of absenteeism.…”

Multidisciplinary outpatient treatment in patients with mild traumatic brain injury: A randomised controlled intervention study

“…This could explain the potential delay in RTW in the intervention group. The Norwegian welfare model, which compensates 100% of income, and regulations concerning job security may also delay RTW, especially among patients in a follow-up programme that justifies being sick-listed [33].…”