Health and Motivational Factors In Sickness Absence

Abstract

The influence on sickness absence of both attendance motivation and ill‐health is addressed in a national sample of British working people. Three patterns of absence are studied, those suggested to be attributable to differences in ill‐health alone, those considered to arise from variations in attendance motivation alone and those thought to be due to variations in both factors. the first pattern is illustrated by the finding that age is positively associated with sickness absence, contrary to suggestions from published meta‐analyses. Variations in both ill‐health and attendance motivation are implicated in the demonstration that the positive relationship with age is significantly non‐linear, with elevated rates of sickness absence at younger as well as at older ages; minimum levels of sickness absence were found to be at 41 years for men and 38 years for women. Motivational (rather than ill‐health) differences are suggested to underlie the observed greater sickness absence among employed people in comparison with the self‐employed, and among full‐time workers in relation to part‐timers. Differences associated with gender, socio‐economic status, shift‐working and chronic health impairment are also reported here.