The Impact of Health Behaviour on Long Term Sickness Absence: Results from DWECS/DREAM

Abstract

Long term sickness absence (LTSA) is a major public health problem. We examined the impact of four, potentially modifiable, health behaviours, such as smoking, alcohol consumption, leisure time physical activity, and the associated variable of body mass index on the risk of subsequent LTSA. This was done by following a representative population sample of 5,020 Danish employees aged 18-69 for 18 months in a national register on social transfer payments. Risk estimates for onset of LTSA and etiologic fractions were computed. In women, ex-smokers and heavy smokers had an increased risk of LTSA of 1.61 and 2.05 respectively after adjustment for age, family status, socio economic status, school education, physical and psychosocial work environment exposures and diagnosed disease. In men, effect estimates were smaller and only borderline significant in the fully-adjusted model. The etiologic fraction of smoking was 17.4% in men and 25.5% in women.

The relationship between overweight and obesity, and sick leave: a systematic review

“…Out of these, a total of 13 longitudinal studies met the inclusion criteria. [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] One publication 30 described a study that was described partly in two earlier publications. 27,28 Although the most recent publication slightly differed from the other publications in that it combined the study populations of the two earlier ones and added another oil refinery, it did not provide additional data that were relevant to this review.…”

“…22 Another study examined the relationship between overweight and obesity with multiple measures of sick leave, including very short (1-2 days), short (3-7 days), medium (8-21 days), and long (X22 days). 21 In total, eight studies investigated the relationship between overweight and/or obesity with long-term sick leave, [19][20][21][22][23][24]28,29 of which five studies also investigated the relationship with shorter spells of sick leave. [20][21][22][23][24] The remaining five studies did not distinguish between duration of sick leave; they investigated the relationship between overweight and obesity and total duration of sick leave.…”

“…[19][20][21][22][23][24][25]28 Table 4 presents an overview of the high quality studies showing either positive or no relationship with sick leave. Seven of these examined the relationship with long-term sick leave, with five of them also investigating the relationship with short-term sick leave.…”

“…[20][21][22][23][24] Despite a positive trend, the remaining three studies did not observe significance. 19,23,28 For example, the study of Christensen et al 19 among 5366 Danish workers found a hazard ratio of 1.38 (95% CI: 0.97-1.95) for the onset of long-term sickness during the 18-month follow-up period. Owing to inconsistency, there was inconclusive evidence of a significant relationship between overweight and long-term sick leave.…”

“…The relationship between obesity and sick leave was investigated in 10 longitudinal studies, [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][27][28][29] of which one was of low quality. 27 The low-quality study observed differences in average absence duration of 3.6 and 1.0 days between obese and non-obese male and female employees of an oil refinery.…”