Work-Related Factors Affecting the Occurrence of Presenteeism － Recent Research Trends and Future Directions

Abstract

Productivity loss due to presenteeism accounts for a large proportion of economic losses caused by workers' health problems. To reduce presenteeism, it is necessary to identify its causes, but, in contrast to the large amount of research on the effects of diseases and lifestyles, there is not enough research on the effects of workrelated factors on presenteeism. In this study, those factors include the work environment and the work-related psychological status of workers. The purpose of this review was to identify research trends in presenteeism, defined as work-related productivity loss, and to examine future directions for presenteeism research. We conducted a search with only the keyword "presenteeism" using MEDLINE/PubMed for the last 5 years and extracted 30 relevant articles, most of which were cross-sectional studies. The articles were categorized into the following themes: 1) studies on the associations of various stress models and factors with presenteeism; 2) studies on the mediators and the pathways of association between stress factors and presenteeism; 3) studies on the relationships between organizational factors and presenteeism; and 4) studies on the link between workers' positive and negative psychological status and presenteeism. Our findings showed that, over the last 5 years, the relationship between psychological stress and presenteeism has been extended to include a variety of stress models and stressors. In addition, by putting many models and factors into a single statistical model and adjusting for their interrelationships, important factors have been examined by ensuring that a significant relationship with presenteeism remains. As there is still a lack of longitudinal studies necessary to discuss causality, more research of higher quality is needed.

Perceived Supervisor Support for Health Affects Presenteeism: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…Job resources also have a motivational role in improving employee work engagement (WE) [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ]. Job resources have been reported to reduce presenteeism through these two psychological states of distress and WE [ 17 , 18 ].…”

Perceived Supervisor Support for Health Affects Presenteeism

“…7,[9][10][11][12] In addition, a high level of job resources can reduce presenteeism of employees through these two psychological states. 13,14 Perceived supervisor support (PSS) is a job resource defined as the extent to which employees believe their supervisors value their contributions and care about their well-being. 15 Examples of work support by supervisors include coaching, helping fulfill workers' job responsibilities, and performance evaluations.…”

“…In the job demands–resource (JD-R) model, which is often used as an occupational stress model, high job resources have the positive effect of reducing psychological distress and increasing work engagement (WE) 7,9–12 . In addition, a high level of job resources can reduce presenteeism of employees through these two psychological states 13,14 …”