Documents sick leave 291 results

"Objectives This study aimed to examine gender differences in physician-certified sick leave and the extent to which these differences can be explained by work-related psychosocial and mechanical risk factors.Methods Randomly drawn from the general population in Norway, the cohort comprised working men and women aged 18–69 years (N=12 255, response rate at baseline = 60.9%). Eligible respondents were interviewed in 2009 and registered with an active employee relationship of ?100 actual working days in 2009 and 2010 (N=3688 men and 3070 women). The study measured 11 work-related psychosocial factors and 11 mechanical exposures, and outcomes of interest were physician-certified general sick leave (GSL) >0 days and long-term sick leave (LTSL) ?40 working days during 2010.Results Women reported a significantly higher level of exposure to 9 of the 11 psychosocial factors evaluated. For mechanical factors, the reporting was mixed. After controlling for age, educational level, sick leave during 2009, housework, working hours and family status, a 1.7-fold risk for GSL and LTSL were found among women. In comparison with the initial model, adjusting for psychosocial factors reduced the excess risk by 21% and 27% for GSL and LTSL, respectively. The total effect of mechanical factors was negligible. Differences between occupations held by women and men explained an additional one-tenth of the excess risk for LTSL among women.Conclusions Work-related psychosocial factors contributed significantly to a higher level of GSL and LTSL among women. The most important factors were demands for hiding emotions, emotional demands, and effort–payment imbalance."

"This study estimated the economic effects of hypothetical interventions improving different aspects of Danish workers' psychosocial work environment. We found substantial economic gains, mostly driven by savings related to sickness absence, from simultaneous improvements of all aspects. Economic effects from improvements in specific aspects varied a lot. The results may be useful when considering implementing future real-life interventions."

This work is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

"Objectives The aim of this study was to investigate associations between psychosocial working conditions, occupational groups defined by sector, and disability pension (DP) with mental diagnoses while accounting for familial confounding. Methods A prospective population-based cohort study was conducted, including all Swedish twins who, in January 1993, were living and working in Sweden and not on old-age pension or DP (N=42 715). The twins were followed from 1993–2008 regarding DP. Data on DP, exposures, and covariates were obtained from national registries. Cox proportional hazards regression models with hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were constructed for the whole cohort, and for discordant twin pairs.Results The associations for the whole cohort between DP with mental diagnoses and (i) job demands (HR 1.23, 95% CI 1.06–1.43), (ii) job control (HR 0.91, 95% CI 0.83–0.99), (iii) healthcare and social work (HR 1.41, 95% CI 1.04–1.92), and (iv) service and military work (HR 2.07, 95% CI 1.37–3.14) remained after accounting for possible confounders, including familial factors, while the associations between DP and (i) social support, (ii) type of jobs, and (iii) some of the occupational groups were attenuated, becoming non-significant. In the discordant twin pair analyses, commercial work was significantly associated with lower risk of DP (HR 0.55, 95% CI 0.32–0.95).Conclusions One unit increase in job demands and working in the occupational groups healthcare and social work or service and military work seem to be risk factors of DP with mental diagnoses, independent from various background factors including familial ones. However, one unit increase in job control or working in commercial work seem to be protective factors of such DP, accounting for confounding factors of this study."

"Objectives The purpose of this study was to determine the occupational factors that cause workers to take sick leave.

Methods Twice, with a 24-month interval, 117 white- and 189 blue-collar employees from 2 metal industry companies completed a questionnaire on recurrent low-back pain and exposure to potential risk factors (biomechanical loads, physical environment, psychosocial factors) at work. Sick leave was monitored for the period between the questionnaires.

Results Low-back pain was predicted by exposure to harmful biomechanical loads among both white- and blue-collar workers [odds ratio (OR) 4.1 and 4.7, respectively), stress among white-collar workers (OR 2.4), and draft among blue-collar workers (OR 2.3). The take-up of sick leave was predicted by exposure to harmful biomechanical loads [rate ratio (RR) 1.7]; for sick leaves attributed to low-back pain the rate ratio was 3.1. Lack of recognition and respect at work predicted sick-leave attributed to low-back pain (RR 2.0), but not to other disorders.

Conclusion Recurrent low-back pain is preceded by reports of harmful biomechanical loads at work among white- and blue-collar workers, by stress among white-collar workers and by draft among blue-collar workers. The environmental and psychosocial factors under study did not modify the relation between biomechanical loads and the recurrent low-back pain. Sick leave attributed to back disorders is preceded by exposure to biomechanical loads at work and by a lack of recognition and respect at work among blue-collar workers. Biomechanical loading seems to be the most important occupational factor predicting both recurrent low-back pain and sick leave attributed to back disorders. Lack of recognition and respect at work appear to affect sick leave attributed to back disorders."

"OBJECTIVES:
The aim of this study was to examine whether differences in male and female occupations and workplaces explain gender differences in self-certified (1-3 days) and medically confirmed sickness absence episodes of various lengths (> or = 4 days, >2 weeks, >60 days). Analyses in the main ICD-10 diagnostic groups were conducted for absence episodes of >2 weeks. Furthermore, we examined whether the contribution of occupation is related to different distributions of female and male jobs across the social class hierarchy.
METHODS:
All municipal employees of the City of Helsinki at the beginning of 2004 (N=36 395) were followed-up until the end of 2007. Conditional fixed-effects Poisson regression was used to control for differences between occupations and workplaces.
RESULTS:
Controlling for occupation accounted for half of the female excess in self-certified and medically confirmed episodes lasting >60 days. In the intermediate categories, this explained about one third of the female excess. The effect of workplace was similar but weaker. Occupational and workplace differences explained the female excess in sickness absence due to mental and behavioral disorders, musculoskeletal diseases, and respiratory diseases. The effect of occupation was clearly stronger than that of social class in self-certified absence episodes, whereas in medically confirmed sickness absence episodes gender differences were to a large extent related to social class differences between occupations.
CONCLUSIONS:
Differences between occupations held by women and men explain a substantial part of the female excess in sickness absence. Mental and behavioral disorders and musculoskeletal diseases substantially contribute to this explanation."

"Objective We studied predictors of sickness absences (SA) due to musculoskeletal pain over two years among 386 municipal female kitchen workers.Methods Pain and SA periods (no/yes) due to pain in seven sites during the past three months were assessed at 3-month intervals over two years by questionnaire. Age, musculoskeletal pain, multisite pain (pain in ?3 sites), musculoskeletal and other somatic diseases, depressive symptoms, physical and psychosocial workload, body mass index, smoking, and leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) at baseline were considered as predictors. Trajectory analysis and multinomial logistic regression were used. Results Three trajectories of SA emerged, labelled as “none” (41% of the subjects), “intermediate” (48%), and “high” (11%). With the “none” trajectory (no SA) as reference, pain in all musculoskeletal sites excepting the low back predicted belonging to the “intermediate” [odds ratio (OR) 1.82–2.48] or “high” (OR 2.56–3.74) trajectory adjusted for age; multisite pain predicted membership of the “intermediate” [OR 2.15, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.38–3.34] or “high” (OR 4.66, 95% CI 2.10–10.3) trajectories. In a mutually adjusted final model, smoking (OR 2.12, 95% CI 1.22–3.69), multisite pain (OR 1.87, 95% CI 1.15–3.02), and overweight/obesity (OR 1.71, 95% CI 1.08–2.72) predicted belonging to the “intermediate” trajectory, while depressive symptoms (OR 3.57, 95% CI 1.57–8.10), musculoskeletal diseases (OR 3.18, 95% CI 1.37–7.37), and multisite pain (OR 2.72, 95% CI 1.15–6.40) were associated with the “high” trajectory.Conclusion Along with the number of pain sites and musculoskeletal diseases, attention to depressive symptoms, smoking, and overweight/obesity is needed to tackle SA related to musculoskeletal pain."

"Objectives The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of the Danish return-to-work (RTW) program on long-term sickness absence in a randomized controlled trial in three municipalities. Methods The intervention group comprised 1948 participants while the control group comprised 1157 participant receiving ordinary sickness benefit management (OSM). Study participants were working-age adults receiving long-term (?8 weeks or more) benefits, included regardless of reason for sickness absence or employment status. Each beneficiary was followed-up for a maximum period of 52 weeks. Cox proportional hazards model was used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) for return to work (RTW) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). Results The intervention effect differed significantly between the municipalities (P=0.00005). In one municipality (M2) the intervention resulted in a statistically significant increased rate of recovery from long-term sickness absence (HR 1.51, 95% CI 1.31–1.74). In the other two municipalities, the intervention did not show a statistically significant effect (HRM1 1.12, 95% CI 0.97–1.29, and HRM3 0.80, 95% CI 0.63–1.03, respectively). Adjustment for a series of possible confounders only marginally altered the estimated HR. Conclusion The effect of the intervention differed substantially between the three municipalities, indicating that that contextual factors are of major importance for success or failure of this complex intervention."

"Utilizing Norwegian linked register and survey data, while exploiting a discontinuity in public sick pay legislation, I show that the public sick pay compensation level causally affects male performance pay workers' sick leave days. Both male and female performance pay workers experience longer sick leaves when provided private supplementary sick pay compared with those being eligible for public sick pay only. This differential impact of the replacement rate on workers' sick leave rates reveals heterogeneous behavioural changes following public sick pay cuts, and this heterogeneity will be reinforced by the provision of employer-provided sick pay to attractive worker groups."

"Objectives The purpose of this study was to investigate which opportunities and obstacles employees with common mental disorders (CMD) experience in relation to return to work (RTW) and how they perceive the process of returning to work. In addition, the study explores what characterizes an optimal RTW intervention and points to possible ways to improve future interventions for employees with CMD. Methods A systematic literature search was conducted, and eight qualitative studies of medium or high quality published between 1995–2011 were included in this systematic review. The eight studies were synthesized using the meta-ethnographic method. Results This meta-synthesis found that employees with CMD identify a number of obstacles to and facilitators of returning to work related to their own personality, social support at the workplace, and the social and rehabilitation systems. The employees found it difficult to decide when they were ready to resume work and experienced difficulties implementing RTW solutions at the workplace.Conclusions This study reveals that the RTW process should be seen as a continuous and coherent one where experiences of the past and present and anticipation of the future are dynamically interrelated and affect the success or failure of RTW. The meta-synthesis also illuminates insufficient coordination between the social and rehabilitation systems and suggests how an optimal RTW intervention could be designed."