Occupational factors and sick leave in Australian employees

Association Between Commute Duration and Sickness Absence in the Context of China: Mechanism and Heterogeneous Effects

Background: Most employees in urban China have experienced a heavy commuting burden, which has become an urgent issue that should be solved in the new urbanization strategy process. However, the exploration of the relationship between the commute duration and sickness absence remains scant in China, and no direct discussion has been done to analyze the mechanism linking commute duration and sickness absence.

Methods: Using a unique dataset of the 2013 China Matched Employer–Employee Survey, the present study applies a two-level random-intercept Poisson model to explore this association.

Results: A long commute is significantly related with increased sickness absence. A longer commute is associated with poorer self-rated health status and a higher degree of psychological depression, and it is also highly related with a decrease in sleeping time. Moreover, an increased commuting duration is associated with lower work effort (working hours).

Conclusion: Longer commute duration induces lower productivity through increased sickness absence, and the potential link of commute duration and sickness absence is mainly transmitted through health-related outcomes and work effort.

A Preliminary Investigation of Health and Work-Environment Factors on Presenteeism in the Workplace

OBJECTIVE

This study investigates the health and work-environment factors that are associated with presenteeism.

METHOD

A self-report survey that measured presenteeism, 13 health conditions (eg, stress and allergies), and nine work-environment factors (eg, job strain and leadership) was completed by 229 workers.

RESULTS

The most common health condition was stress, while the most common work-environment factor was job strain. Allergies, asthma, and high blood pressure along with work-life imbalance, poor leadership, and a lack of development opportunities were associated with presenteeism. Finally, several inter-relationships between the health and work-environment factors were also reported.

CONCLUSION

Interventions targeted at the points of intersection among the health conditions and work-environment factors could be a cost-effective way to improve employees' overall well-being at work, and thus reduce presenteeism.

Long working hours are inversely related to sick leave in the following 3 months: a 4-year registry study

PURPOSE

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of long working hours (≥ 12 h shifts) on sick leave using objective records of shift work exposure and of sick leave.

METHODS

A total of 1538 nurses (mean age 42.5, SD 12.0; response rate 42%) participated. Payroll and archival sick leave data over a 4-year period were retrieved from employers' records and aggregated over every third calendar month. A multilevel negative binomial model was used to investigate the effects of exposure to long working hours, on subsequent sick leave rates the following 3 months. Covariates included prior sick leave, number of shifts worked, night and evening shifts, personality, and demographic characteristics.

RESULTS

Exposure to long working hours was associated with fewer sick leave days in the subsequent 3 months [adjusted model, incidence rate ratio (IRR) = 0.946, 95% CI 0.919-0.973, p < 0.001]. The interaction long working hours by a number of work days showed that sick leave days the subsequent 3 months was higher by long shifts when number of shifts was high compared to when number of shifts was low [adjusted model, IRR 1.002, 95% CI 1.000-1.004, p < 0.05].

DISCUSSION

Long working hours was associated with fewer sick leave days. The restorative effects of extra days off with long working hours are discussed as possible explanations to this relationship.

Long working hours and sickness absence-a fixed effects design

Background

While long working hours seem to lead to impaired health, several studies have also shown that long working hours are related to lower levels of sickness absence. Previous studies on the relationship between long working hours and sickness absence have compared those who work long hours to those who do not, looking only at between-individual correlations. Those results might therefore reflect relatively stable differences between employees who typically work long hours and employees who typically do not. The aim of the present study is to examine within-individual correlations between long working hours and sickness absence.

Methods

Records from the Human Resources department in a large Norwegian hospital from 2012 to 2015 provided objective data on both working hours and sickness absence. Two analyses were performed: a prospective cohort analysis to replicate the results from previous between-individual analyses and a second analysis of within-individual correlations using a fixed effect design.

Results

In line with existing research, both between-individual and within-individual analyses showed a negative relationship between long working hours (> 48 h/week) and short-term sickness absence (1–8 days) and no significant difference in incidence of long-term sickness absence (> 8 days).

Conclusions

The results indicate that the negative relationship between long working hours and sickness absence is not due only to relatively stable individual differences between those who typically work long hours and those who do not. The results from both analyses therefore still contrast with previous research showing a negative relationship between long working hours and other health indicators.

Sickness absence among municipal workers in a Brazilian municipality: a secondary data analysis

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.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s13104-017-3116-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Relationships between work environment factors and presenteeism mediated by employees' health: a preliminary study

OBJECTIVE

This study investigates a research framework for presenteeism, in particular, whether work environment factors are indirectly related to presenteeism via employees' health.

METHODS

A total of 336 employees, 107 from a manufacturing company in Europe and 229 from various locations across North America, completed a self-report survey, which measured the association between presenteeism (dependent variable) and several health and work environment factors (independent variables). These relationships were tested using path analysis with bootstrapping in Mplus.

RESULTS

Presenteeism was directly related to health burden (r = 0.77; P = 0.00) and work environment burden (r = 0.34; P = 0.00). The relationship between work environment burden and presenteeism was partially mediated by health burden (β = 0.08; 95% confidence interval, 0.002 to 0.16).

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest both a direct and an indirect relationship between work environment factors and presenteeism at work.

Trends of sickness certifications in primary health care in muscat, sultanate of oman

OBJECTIVES

Sickness certification (SC) is common practice in primary health care with proven implications on the health system. To assess the rate of sickness certifications in the Bowsher province and describe related demographic, occupational and medical factors.

METHODS

Our retrospective, cross-sectional study retrieved data for all consultations, with patients aged six to 65 years old, which ended with SC. The data from four primary health care centers in the Bowsher provice were collected during 2011 using the electronic medical record system. Collected data included patient demographics, occupation, date issued, duration of sickness certification, recorded vital signs, and clinical diagnosis. Suitable rates were calculated as percentages and important differences were compared using the chi-square test.

RESULTS

The total number of consultation visits for the targeted population was 189,275. Of these 26,096 consultations resulted in SC to a total of 15,758 patients. The overall rate of SC was 13.8 per 100 consultation-years (confidence interval (CI): 13.6-14). SC rates in males were significantly higher than females (17 and 11 per 100 consultations/year, respectively). Patients aged 19-29 years old had the highest rate of SC (18.6/100 consultations/year). School students aged six to 18 years made up 28% of patients, and 24% and 22% of patients were working in the private and public sectors, respectively. No vital signs record was found for 30% of SC visits. The highest rate of SC was in October (17%) and the lowest was in August (9%). Acute respiratory infections were the most frequent diagnoses (31%) resulting in certifications. The rate of SC issued for Omanis and non-Omanis was 14 and 9 per 100 consultations per year, respectively.

CONCLUSION

Sickness certification is a burden on primary health care in the studied health centers with approximately one in seven consultations ending with SC issued. More investigations are needed to identify determinates of high sickness absence. Robust guidelines are important to regulate the number of sickness certificates issued.

Risk factors of recurrent sickness absence due to depression: a two-year cohort study among Japanese employees

PURPOSE

Depression has a high recurrence rate among employees. There have been few studies investigating risk factors for recurrent sickness absence due to depression after return to work (RTW). The objective of this study was to identify potential risk factors.

METHODS

Subjects were 540 full-time employees at the biggest telecommunication company in Japan who returned to work from April 2002 to March 2008 after their first leave of absence due to depression. The Cox proportional hazard model was employed to find risk factors for recurrent sickness absence by analyzing variables including demographic, work-related and work environmental factors.

RESULTS

Of 540 study subjects, 200 employees (37.0 %) experienced recurrent sickness absence due to depression after RTW within the follow-up period. Higher organizational job demand evaluated by the Brief Job Stress Questionnaire (BJSQ) was found to be a risk factor (OR 1.46, 95 % CI 1.01-2.10) for recurrent sickness absence due to depression adjusted for confounding factors.

CONCLUSIONS

High organizational job demand (evaluated by BJSQ) is a risk factor for recurrent sickness absence due to depression after RTW.

Cooperation between general practitioners and occupational health physicians in Germany: how can it be optimised? A qualitative study

PURPOSE

General practitioners (GPs) and occupational health physicians (OPs) have several overlapping work fields, such as important functions in prevention, rehabilitation and reintegration into the workplace. In Germany, however, cooperation between GP and OP is often lacking or suboptimal. In this article, we analysed the suggestions for optimisation of cooperation.

METHODS

Three focus groups were interviewed: GP, OP and medical doctors working in both fields. A qualitative content analysis was performed.

RESULTS

Categories of suggestions could be assigned to five issues: the "Systemic View" concerning the state and/or employer (e.g. the system of remuneration for GPs), "Inter-collegial Contact" (e.g. fostering "friendly exchanges" between both groups), "Medical Education" (e.g. introducing joint quality circles), "Contents of both Specialities" (e.g. necessity of communicating respective contents and competences), and "Patient-centred Care" (e.g. reintegration into workplace after longer periods of illness). The optimisation of cooperation was considered necessary by the OPs, whereas its necessity was sometimes questioned in the GPs' group.

CONCLUSION

In many aspects, the present data agree with results of studies from other countries addressing the cooperation between GPs and OPs and/or other specialists. Many suggestions obtained in this study are practical and could be implemented into daily routine. Future quantitative research is required to better assess the relative weight of the suggestions presented here.

Predicting temporal trends in sickness absence rates for civil service employees of a federal public health agency

OBJECTIVE

To determine whether trends of sickness in employees at a federal agency are predictable, and whether the variance was minimal enough to detect unusual levels of employee illness for further investigation.

METHODS

Ten years of absenteeism data from an attendance system were analyzed for rates of sickness absence. Specifically, week of year and day of week were used to describe temporal trends.

RESULTS

This study evaluates the predictability in temporal absence trends due to sickness among employees at a federal agency. Trends follow regular patterns during a given year that correspond to seasonal illnesses. Temporal trends in sick leave have been proven to be very predictable.

CONCLUSION

The minimal variance allows the detection of sick leave anomalies that may be ascribable to specific causes, allowing the business or agency to follow-up and develop interventions.