Abstract
The objective of this study was to investigate if the psychosocial work environment moderates the proposed negative impact of presenteeism on future general health. We expect that the negative impact of presenteeism on general health is weaker if the psychosocial work environment is resourceful, and more pronounced if the environment is stressful. Data were derived from the 2008–2018 biennial waves of the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH). The final analytic sample consisted of n = 15,779 individuals. We applied repeated measures regression analyses through generalized estimating equations (GEE). Results from the autoregressive GEE models showed statistically significant interaction terms between presenteeism and all four investigated moderators, i.e., job demands, job control, job support and job strain. The results indicate that the psychosocial work environment moderates the negative association between presenteeism and general health and illustrates a buffering effect of the psychosocial work environment. A possible explanation for these results may be that psychosocially resourceful work environments give room for adjustments in the work situation and facilitate recovery. The results also indicate that by investing the psychosocial work environment employers may be able to promote worker health as well as prevent reduced job performance due to presenteeism.
Highlights
Presenteeism, that is, the behaviour of going to work despite illness, has attracted increasing interest from occupational health researchers during the two last decades [1]
Employees engaged in presenteeism in a stressful work environment with high job demands and low job control described worse general health compared to employees with the same amount of presenteeism who were working under less stressful circumstances
We found that a resourceful psychosocial work environment and a work environment with low work demands was associated with better future general health among employees who reported presenteeism
Summary
Presenteeism, that is, the behaviour of going to work despite illness, has attracted increasing interest from occupational health researchers during the two last decades [1]. Presenteeism is caused by ill health but research has shown that many other factors, both occupational and individual, are involved in the decision to go to work or stay home when sick. Examples of attendance pressure factors at work are time pressure, high job demands, role conflicts, job insecurity or having to catch up work if absent [1,2]. Individual factors related to presenteeism have been investigated to a lesser. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 4711; doi:10.3390/ijerph17134711 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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