The role of extended weekends in sickness absenteeism (original) (raw)
Related papers
Sickness Absence: a Pan-European Study
2010
This study, using the EU-LFS, examines the determinants of sickness absence in 26 EU countries. The analysis highlights the importance of demographic and workplace characteristics and of institutional and societal conditions. Female workers aged 26-35 exhibit higher absenteeism, possibly reflecting the level of high household labour pressure. Increased job insecurity, captured by temporary contracts, and labour market uncertainty, reflected in higher unemployment rates, have a negative effect on absenteeism.
Influence of Work Type on Sickness Absence among Personnel in a Teaching Hospital
Journal of Occupational Health, 2002
, and analysed using descriptive statistics and negative binomial regression. Doctors and nurses recorded lower rates of short-term sickness absence (< 3 d) than other workers. Doctors also recorded the lowest rate of long-term absence (≥ 3 d), whereas other medical personnel and manual workers had higher rates of long-term sickness absence than other workers. These differences were only slightly influenced by sex, age and marital status. Rates of shortterm sickness absence were higher in males, older and married personnel. A higher grade of employment was associated with lower sickness absence, both short-and long-term, and accounted for much of the actual differences among work types. Nevertheless, significant differences across work type remained after adjustment for socio-demographic and other work-related variables. The findings of this study would provide new baseline information regarding sickness absence patterns among hospital staff in this particular setting, but there is still a need to distinguish among the true reasons for reported sickness absence, particularly short-term absence, in order to set up an appropriate health promotion programme among the staff of this hospital.
Journal of Health Economics, 2011
Based on comprehensive administrative register data from Norway, we examine the determinants of sickness absence behavior; in terms of employee characteristics workplace characteristics, panel doctor characteristics, and economic conditions. The analysis is based on a novel concept of a worker's steady state sickness absence propensity, computed from a multivariate hazard rate model designed to predict the incidence and the duration of sickness absence for all workers. Key conclusions are i) that most of the cross-sectional variation in absenteeism is caused by genuine employee heterogeneity; ii) that the identity of a person's panel doctor has a significant impact on absence propensity; iii) that sickness absence insurance is frequently certified for reasons other than sickness; and iv) that the recovery rate rises enormously just prior to the exhaustion of sickness insurance benefits.
2005
To compare self-reported sickness absence days in the last 12 months with recorded absences from the employers' registers for the same period. Methods: Self-reported sickness absence data over the 12 months preceding baseline (1985-88) were compared with absence records from the employers' registers over the same period for 2406 women and 5589 men, participants in the Whitehall II study of British civil servants. Associations with self-rated health, longstanding illness, minor psychiatric disorder, physical illness, and prevalent coronary heart disease at baseline were determined. Results: In general, women reported less sickness absence over the last year than was recorded in the employers' registers, while men, with the exception of those in the lower employment grades, reported more. Agreement between self-reported and recorded absence days decreased as the total number of days increased. After adjustment for employment grade and the average number of recorded and selfreported absence days, the total number of self-reported absence days was within two days of the recorded number of days for 63% of women and 67% of men. Associations between annual self-reported sickness absence days and self-rated health, longstanding illness, minor psychiatric disorder, physical illness, and prevalent coronary heart disease were as strong as those for recorded absence days. Conclusion: These findings suggest that agreement between the annual number of self-reported and the annual number of recorded sickness absence days is relatively good in both sexes and that associations with health are equivalent for both measures.
Sickness absence among municipal workers in a Brazilian municipality: a secondary data analysis
BMC Research Notes, 2017
Background: Sickness absence, work disability associated with illness or injury, is a major public health problem worldwide. Some studies have investigated determinants of sickness absence among workers with shorter job tenure, but have only focused on certain diagnostic groups. Although it is well established that job tenure has an inverse relationship with work injury rate, less is known about its association with sickness absence for other disorders. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the risk factors for incidence and duration of sickness absence according to diagnosis over a 7-year period. A dynamic cohort consisting of all permanent civil servants hired from 2005 to 2011 by the Goiania municipality-Brazil. Data of certified sickness absences longer than 3 days were analyzed. The incidence density was calculated per 1000 person-years in each ICD-10 category. The association between sickness absence and socio-demographic and occupational characteristics was examined using negative binomial regression models. Results: 18,450 workers, mean age of 32 years, accumulated 14,909 episodes of sickness absence. Overall, the incidence density was 234.6 episodes per 1000 person years. Diagnostic groups with the highest incidence density of sickness absences were injuries (49.1), musculoskeletal disorders (31.3) and mental disorders (29.2). Factors predicting any sickness absence were female gender, older age, low education, being a health professional, multiple jobs and full-time employment. Mental health disorders were more common among education professionals, musculoskeletal disorders among blue collar workers and injuries among inspection workers. Prolonged time on sick leave was associated with male gender, older age groups, low education and income, blue-collar workers, more than one job contract and full time employment. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate a substantial sickness absentee burden and they provide relevant information for targeting prevention and health promotion policies to the most vulnerable occupational groups.
Sickness absence in workplaces: Does it reflect a healthy hire effect?
International Journal of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health, 2015
Objectives: Sickness absence in workplaces may reflect working conditions. It may also reflect a "healthy hire effect," i.e., that workplaces recruit individuals with experience of sickness absence differently. The purpose of the study was to determine if a history of sickness absence among recruits is associated with the average level of sickness absence in workplaces. Material and Methods: In a register-based follow-up study, Swedish workplaces with at least 5 employees in 2006 were selected (approximately 127 000 workplaces with 3.9 million employees). The workplaces were categorized according to the average workplace sickness absence in 2006 and the recruits were categorized according to the individual sickness absence in 2005. The workplaces with a high average level of sickness absence were more likely than those with a low level to hire employees with high sickness absence in the year preceding employment: men-odds ratio (OR) = 7.2, 95% confidence interval (CI): 6.6-7.8, women-OR = 7.5, 95% CI: 6.9-8.1. Results: The results show that there is a greater likelihood of employing individuals with high levels of sickness absence in the workplaces with many days of the average sickness absence than in the workplaces with few days of the average sickness absence. Conclusions: The results suggest that sickness absence in workplaces may reflect a healthy hire effect.
A Disaggregated Approach to the Study of Absence from Work
Labour & Industry: a journal of the social and economic relations of work, 1995
A disaggregated approach to the study of absence from work Abstract Analyses of absence from work have traditionally treated all types of absence days as identical. It is argued here that such an approach has led researchers to impose unnecessary restrictions on their models of absence behaviour. This hypothesis is tested here using data collected from over 1400 employees from 61 different Australian workplaces. While the absence days measure distinguishes between 25 different reasons for taking time off work, specification testing indicates that it is appropriate to cluster these reasons into ten different types of absence. Dependent variables representing each of these absence types were then created and regressed against a large range of explanatory variables representing demographic, job and workplace characteristics, and worker attitudes, and generally thought to influence attendance levels. The results indicate that the effects of these variables vary, in terms of both size and significance, with the type of absence being considered. subsequently, the Department of Industrial Relations. The authors acknowledge the efforts of William Brummit, Frances Robertson and Belinda Dodd who coordinated the administration of the survey, and M.L. Higgins, Audrey VandenHeuvel and two anonymous referee who provided helpful comments and advice.
A systematic literature review of the relationship between work hours and sickness absence
Work & Stress
The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between work hours and sickness absence: is a higher number of work hours associated with better or with adverse health? A systematic literature review was performed by searching Medline, PsychInfo, and Web of Science. All abstracts were screened to identify papers that empirically investigated the relationship between work hours and sickness absence in a working population. A total of 1072 papers were identified, and 70 papers were included in this review. A simple measure of the strength of effects was applied, and the findings are summarized in narrative form. Evidence supporting a relationship between sickness absence and working part-time or work hours as a continuous variable was inconclusive. These inconclusive findings might be due to heterogeneity in the operationalization of key variables or to publication bias. Support for a negative relationship between long work hours and sickness absence was moderately strong. Possible explanations for this include the healthy worker selection effect, differences in job characteristics, and differences in job motivation. Empirical testing of these explanations, however, has been limited. Our findings indicate that employers should monitor employee health in times of high work pressure, even if sickness absence is low.