Leakage from medically-certified to self-certified workplace absence among norwegian employees

Objectives: To study the effects of pain on sickness absence, taking into account physical and psychosocial work load and socio-economic position. Methods: Data consisted of City of Helsinki personnel register...

BackgroundFrom 1970–2012, the average age at first delivery increased from 23.2–28.5 in Norway. Postponement of first pregnancy increases risks of medical complications both during and after pregnancy. Sickness absence during pregnancy has over the last two decades increased considerably more than in non-pregnant women. The aim of this paper is twofold: Firstly to investigate if postponement of pregnancy is related to increased sickness absence and thus contributing to the increased gender difference in sickness absence; and secondly, to estimate how much of the increased gender difference in sickness absence that can be accounted for by increased sickness absence amongst pregnant women.MethodsWe employed registry-data to analyse sickness absence among all Norwegian employees with income equivalent to full-time work in the period 1993–2007.ResultsAfter control for age, education, and income, pregnant women's sickness absence (age 20–44) increased on average 0.94 percentage points each year, compared to 0.29 in non-pregnant women and 0.14 in men. In pregnant women aged 20–24, sickness absence during pregnancy increased by 0.96 percent points per calendar year, compared to 0.60 in age-group 30–34. Sickness absence during pregnancy accounted for 25% of the increased gender gap in sickness absence, accounting for changes in education, income and age.ConclusionsPostponement of first pregnancy does not explain the increase in pregnant women's sickness absence during the period 1993–2007 as both the highest level and increase in sickness absence is seen in the younger women. Reasons are poorly understood, but still important as it accounts for 25% of the increased gender gap in sickness absence.

BackgroundIt is well documented that tobacco, alcohol and drug use can be detrimental to health. However, little is known about the relative impact of these factors on sickness absence, and whether the association between use of these substances and sickness absence is different for women and men. The aim of this study was to examine the association between tobacco-, alcohol- and drug use, as well as polydrug use, and sickness absence among Norwegian employees.MethodsDuring 2011–2014, 1911 employees in Norway completed a questionnaire about their tobacco, alcohol and drug use habits, their total number of sickness absences during the last 12 months, and the length (no. of days) of their last sick leave. Samples of oral fluid were analysed for illegal and medicinal drugs.ResultsDaily smoking and current use of medical drugs were significantly associated with sickness absence. Employees who were daily smokers also had an increased likelihood of having long and frequent sickness absence. Use of snus (Swedish moist snuff), binge drinking, current use of illegal drugs and polydrug use were not significantly associated with sickness absence. Women and young participants were more likely to report having had sickness absence the past 12 months. However, the associations between daily smoking and medical drug use and sickness absence, respectively, were only statistically significant for men.ConclusionAccording to this study, daily smoking and use of medical drugs are the substance use habits most closely associated with sickness absence. Implications for future research are discussed.

Background Previous studies on the effects of work factors on absence and disability retirement have only addressed a limited set of factors and little is known about the mechanisms that govern relationships between work exposures and sickness absence/disability retirement. The main aims of the present project are (1) to examine the impact of a comprehensive set of psychological, social, organizational, and mechanical work factors work factors on sickness absence and disability retirement, and (2) to identify moderating and mediating variables that determine how and when exposures at the workplace are related to sickness absence and disability retirement.Methods The study design is prospective and based on longitudinal survey data linked to registry data on sickness absence and disability. Altogether 14,501 respondents have given their permission to the linking of their survey questionnaire data to registry data. The project has been approved by the Regional Committees for Medical and Health Research Ethics and has permission from The Norwegian Data Protection Authority. The questionnaire instruments contain psychometrically validated items and inventories on demographic background factors, work exposures, individual dispositions and attitudes, somatic health, mental distress, well-being, lifestyle factors, and work ability.DiscussionThe findings will have relevance for, and benefit working life and the larger society in a number of ways. Firstly, it will lead to a more knowledge about which work factors that contribute to health, sickness absence, and participation in/exit from the labour force. Secondly, a better understanding of which mediators and moderators that modify and govern these relationships. Both are central to the development of laws and regulations and to any political decision on measures to tackle sickness absence and early retirement.

Background: More knowledge is needed to understand costly behaviors such as absence from work or reduced efficiency at work due to alcohol. The aim of this study was: (i) to map employees’ attitudes toward alcohol-related sickness absence and presenteeism and (ii) to examine how these attitudes vary across subgroups of the population.Methods: Data stem from a web-survey among 18–69 year old Norwegians (N = 1407). The respondents evaluated six situations with alcohol-related sickness absence and presenteeism. The employees’ own drinking habits, alcohol-related sickness absence, and presenteeism were mapped.Results: Attitudes toward alcohol-related absence were more restrictive than attitudes toward presenteeism. Both behaviors were condemned more strongly with frequent occurrence. Employees with a high intoxication frequency and/or own experience with these behaviors were more tolerant. Women were less tolerant of alcohol-related absence than men, and employees with a higher educational level were less tolerant of alcohol-related presenteeism than those with a low educational level. The other variables were not significant controlled for all other variables.Conclusion: Alcohol-related sickness absence and presenteeism are generally not tolerated among Norwegian employees, unless it occurs very infrequently. Employees who were frequently intoxicated and who reported having had alcohol-related absence and presenteeism themselves were more tolerant.

The aim of this study was to examine whether differences in male and female occupations and workplaces explain gender differences in self-certified (1-3 days) and medically confirmed sickness absence episodes of various lengths (> or = 4 days, >2 weeks, >60 days). Analyses in the main ICD-10 diagnostic groups were conducted for absence episodes of >2 weeks. Furthermore, we examined whether the contribution of occupation is related to different distributions of female and male jobs across the social class hierarchy. All municipal employees of the City of Helsinki at the beginning of 2004 (N=36 395) were followed-up until the end of 2007. Conditional fixed-effects Poisson regression was used to control for differences between occupations and workplaces. Controlling for occupation accounted for half of the female excess in self-certified and medically confirmed episodes lasting >60 days. In the intermediate categories, this explained about one third of the female excess. The effect of workplace was similar but weaker. Occupational and workplace differences explained the female excess in sickness absence due to mental and behavioral disorders, musculoskeletal diseases, and respiratory diseases. The effect of occupation was clearly stronger than that of social class in self-certified absence episodes, whereas in medically confirmed sickness absence episodes gender differences were to a large extent related to social class differences between occupations. Differences between occupations held by women and men explain a substantial part of the female excess in sickness absence. Mental and behavioral disorders and musculoskeletal diseases substantially contribute to this explanation.

This 40-week cluster-randomised controlled trial (RCT) examines the effects of football and Zumba on self-perceived job satisfaction, work role functioning and sick leave among Norwegian female hospital employees. Hundred-and-seven employees, mainly consisting of nurses (80%), were allocated into three groups; Football (FG), Zumba (ZG) and Control (CG). The exercise groups were offered two to three and one to two 1-h weekly sessions during the first 12 and last 28 weeks, respectively, with an actual weekly exercise frequency of 2.4 ± 0.5 and 0.9 ± 0.2 in FG and 2.3 ± 0.3 and 0.8 ± 0.2 in ZG. Outcome variables were measured at baseline, 12 and 40 weeks. In comparison to CG (4.8 days 95% CI 3.2–6.4), ZG (1.9 days, 95% CI 0.4–3.5) had a significant lower overall mean days of sickness absence during last sick leave period (−2.9 days, 95% CI −5.1 to −0.7, p = .011) which corresponded to a moderate effect size (d = 0.60). Between baseline (88.5%, 95% CI 84.3–92.6) and 12 weeks (93.8%, 95% CI 89.4–98.2), ZG showed significant within-group improvement in total score of the Work Role Functioning Questionnaire (WRFQ) (5.3%, 95% CI 0.6–10.1, p = .029), corresponding to a moderate effect size (d = 0.40). This study indicates that two to three 1-h weekly Zumba sessions can have a preventive effect on sick leave in female hospital employees. Highlights Participants in Zumba exercise organised by the workplace showed a significant lower number of sick leave days compared with the controls. Despite a correspondingly significant reduction in exercise adherence in both groups in the last 28 weeks, only FG showed tendencies for group improvement in job satisfaction and total WRFQ in this period. Workplace promotion of exercise and physical activity can thus be beneficial for both the workers and the organisation.

The relationship between three stages of job change and long-term sickness absence

Although several studies show that personality traits are associated with absenteeism, few large-scale studies have examined these relationships prospectively, integrating survey data and register data on sickness absence. This study examines whether personality is associated with sickness absence, and whether health factors, gender, age, type of occupation and job satisfaction moderate this relationship. We combine survey data assessing the Big Five personality traits from a large sample of Norwegian employees aged 18–62 years ( N = 5017) with register data on physician-certified sickness absence up to four years after. Negative binomial regression analyses showed that extraversion was positively associated with subsequent sickness absence when controlling for several covariates, including health, work factors and previous spells of sickness absence. Neuroticism also showed significant positive associations with sick leave; however, the association diminished when accounting for previous spells of sickness absence. Moderator analyses demonstrated that age and type of occupation affected some of the associations between personality and sickness absence. The findings indicate that – in addition to general health promotion measures – specific interventions targeting individuals high in extraversion may be beneficial in reducing sick leave. How socio-demographic and work-related factors moderate the relationship between personality and sickness absence may be an interesting future research area.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to focus on the associations of employees’ attitudes and human resource arrangements to sickness absence from the perspective of absence culture and work ability.Design/methodology/approachThe study was conducted in one of the largest food industry companies in Finland. Sickness absence register data were obtained from the years 2003 to 2005 and a survey from 2005. This survey included single propositions about work arrangements (five propositions) and attitudes (three propositions) during sickness absence. These were analysed by absence days and short (1‐7 days) and long spells (>7 days).FindingsThe attitude of blue‐collar workers who agreed that it is a matter of course that someone is absent was statistically significant regarding sickness absence. They had increased risk for sickness absence days and for short spells. From work arrangements during absence the fact that jobs will wait returning to the workplace decreased the risk for short and long sickness absence spells in both groups. In addition, the fact that the employer will take a substitute during workmates’ absence increased the risk for all measured sickness absence rates among white‐collar workers.Practical implicationsThese findings should be noted in enterprises’ human resource management and occupational health services to manage and understand sickness absence.Originality/valueAlthough sickness absence has been widely studied, very little is known about sickness absence related work arrangements and attitudes associated with sickness absence. This study increases knowledge about these issues.

BackgroundIncreasing work participation is an important political objective in many countries. In Norway, a voluntary national intervention program aimed at increasing work participation (the IA Agreement) was implemented in 2001,...

ObjectivesSeveral studies have found higher sickness absence in shared and open workspaces than in private offices, but little is known about why these differences occur. We propose and test job control as a potential mechanism underlying observed differences in the risk of physician-certified sickness absence between private offices and shared and open workspaces.MethodsWe conducted a counterfactual mediation analysis using observational survey data from a nationally representative sample of Norwegian employees merged with prospective data from national registries (N=5512). The registry data included information about whether participants had any physician-certified sickness absence the year following the survey. Models were adjusted for age, sex, education level, occupation group, executive/leadership responsibility, and time spent on office work.ResultsWe found significantly higher sickness absence risk in conventional [risk ratio (RR) 1.12, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.01‒1.25] and non-territorial (RR 1.20, 95% 1.04‒1.37) open-plan and non-territorial shared-room offices (RR 1.29, 95% CI 1.13‒1.48) compared to private offices. Natural indirect effects due to job control were statistically significant in all contrasts and accounted for 19–34% of total effects depending on contrast.ConclusionsFindings were in line with hypothesized relationships and suggest that job control may be a mechanism underlying observed differences in sickness absence across office concepts. Future studies should continue to explore potential mechanisms linking shared and open workspaces to higher sickness absence and other unfavorable outcomes in the workplace, particularly with study designs that provide stronger basis for causal inference.

Job-anxiety, as distinguished from trait-anxiety, is associated with long-term sickness absence. The prevalence of job-anxiety within a working population is not known. Identifying individuals who would benefit from intervention might be useful. To investigate job-anxiety in employees not undergoing treatment for mental health illness, firstly by assessing the level of job-anxiety and work-related avoidance tendencies in a working sample, and secondly by testing whether job-anxiety is distinguishable from trait-anxiety. Cross-sectional survey of a convenience sample obtained through personal contact distribution. Employees from different professional settings completed an anonymous questionnaire and provided information on their employment status. The State-Trait-Anxiety Inventory (STAI-T) was used to measure trait-anxiety and the Job-Anxiety-Scale (JAS) was used to assess job (state) anxiety. There was a 69% response rate (240 responses); 188 responses were available for analysis of whom 62% were women. There were no employees with high trait-anxiety. Ten employees (5%) reported increased job-anxiety and of these nine employees reported high 'tendencies of avoidance and workplace absence'. Avoidance was most often accompanied by the comorbid job-anxieties 'job-related social anxiety', 'fear of changes at work' and 'fears of existence', 'anticipatory' and 'conditioned' job-anxiety and 'panic symptoms'. In this sample, self-reported job-anxiety appeared as a specific type of anxiety as opposed to trait-anxiety. In the workplace job-anxiety can present as job-avoidance and sickness absence and should be distinguished from trait-anxiety. In practice, employers and occupational health practitioners should be aware of those employees prone to sickness absence.

Sedentary occupations have increased by more than 10% in Western countries over the last two decades, and the yearly global cost of physical inactivity has been estimated to be $53.8 billion. As workers tend to move less in the workplace, they are more likely to develop a sedentarism-related chronic condition and to be absent from work due to illness, although research evidence on the issue remains unclear. To investigate associations between physical activity (PA) and sickness absenteeism in the workplace among Spanish university workers. We conducted cross-sectional research with data from 1025 workers aged 18-65 years (43% women) from a Spanish university. Physical Activity Vital Sign (PAVS) and International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) short versions were used to evaluate levels of PA. Workplace absenteeism was self-reported by participants. Written questionnaires distributed during medical checks included PAVS, IPAQ and the question about absenteeism among other information. The association between PA and sickness absenteeism was examined using adjusted multiple linear regression. After adjusting for age, sex, job function, chronic conditions, sedentarism and smoking, each weekly hour of PA reduced sickness absence by -1.20 (95% confidence interval: -2.40-0.00) days per year. The implementation of PA promotion strategies aimed at university employees may lead to a reduction of days off work due to illness.

Sickness absence in female- and male-dominated occupations and workplaces