Influence of Work Type on Sickness Absence among Personnel in a Teaching Hospital

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Influence of Work Type on Sickness Absence among Personnel in a Teaching Hospital: Apiradee Lim, et al. Epidemiology Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Prince of Songkla University—Sickness absence among hospital personnel with different work types was compared. Sickness absence records were collected for all personnel in the Faculty of Medicine, Prince of Songkla University, a medical school in southern Thailand with a 750‐bed teaching hospital, from October 1995 to September 1998, 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 short‐ term 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.