Absence Spells Research Articles

Daily inception of incapacity.

“Daily inception of incapacity for work” means the distribution as between one day of the week and another of the records of the start of spells of industrial sickness absence. The analysis which follows of some 5600 inceptions of incapacity among a uniform and widely distributed group of daytime workers suggests that the greatest number of inceptions occur on Tuesdays and the smallest number on Fridays. The thesis is propounded that daily inception of incapacity for work is a constant response by the group to alternating effort and relaxation.

Self-certification for brief spells of sickness absence.

An arrangement is described for manual workers of an oil refinery to certify their own short spells of sickness absence instead of obtaining a medical certificate. No serious abuse has been found, and these spells of absence are more evenly spread throughout the week than those certified by a doctor. This system can help to reduce both the work-load of practitioners and the lost time in industry.

Individual variations in sickness absence.

Records of personal sickness absence, including all spells of one day9s duration or more, have been kept at this refinery for more than 20 years. The distributions of sickness spells and also calendar days of absence have been analysed for single years and also for periods of up to 20 years9 continuous service for the 1,350 hourly paid male employees. It is shown that both these measures of sickness absence are distributed among the men in an unequal fashion (negative binomial) rather than at random (Poisson) and thus resemble the distribution of industrial accidents first described almost 50 years ago. This pattern of distribution is not related to occupation or to length of service. Analysis of the distribution of lateness and absenteeism for reasons other than sickness or holidays shows that these also follow this pattern. It is postulated that this could be a principle applicable to all forms of industrial absenteeism as well as to accidents. The personal records of 187 men with continuous service from 1946 to 1965 have been studied to investigate the trends in their sickness absence over this 20-year period. In contrast to the well-recognized pattern that in any one period of time young men have more spells of absence than their older fellows, this secular study shows that sickness spells have not decreased with age. This apparent paradox is explicable by the rising national trend in sickness absence and by a high labour turnover in young men with frequent sickness spells.

Sickness absence of women bus conductors in London transport (1953-1957).

The sickness-absence experience of women bus conductors employed by London Transport on their central (red) buses is analysed for the years 1953 to 1957 inclusive. The experience of single and married women is given separately, and only absences lasting four days or more (all of which are supported by medical certificate) are included. Results are given in quinquennial age groups for each of 20 broad diagnostic groups and comment is made on each group, emphasis being placed on the comparative experiences of single and married women. Both the numbers of spells of absence and the numbers of days of absence are considered. It is found generally that married women conductors have considerably more sickness absence than single women conductors of the same age: this applies both to spells and days of absence. Analysis of the difference by diagnostic group suggests that there is a propensity, of social origin, for married women to have more absences.

Industrial dermatitis in the coal-miner.

A group of coal-miners who had been certified as suffering from industrial dermatitis in the past has been reviewed. The object was to assess the degree of recovery and the effect of the skin trouble upon working capacity. A record was therefore prepared for each miner indicating (a) whether he had returned to his pre-dermatitis work ; (b) whether he had had any further spells of absence due to recurrence; (c) whether troublesome signs and symptoms persisted which required treatment by his general practitioner. Coal-miners fall naturally into three major occupational groups, namely, face workers, those employed elsewhere underground, and surface workers. These groups differ mainly in their place of work, the natural hazards to which they are exposed, and their rates of pay. It is inter esting to compare the course of dermatitis and the reaction of the individual to this disease in the three occupational groups. The initial incidence of the dermatitis and the pattern of its distribution on the skin differed between the three occupational groups. Subsequently, however, dermatitis in all three groups appeared to behave in a remarkably uniform manner. The significance of this uniformity in relation to the aetiology of dermatitis is discussed.

On the advantages of employing small Cupola Furnaces in iron-founding

Participatory working time scheduling is a collaborative approach to scheduling shift work. As a potential way of improving work time control, it may provide a means to reducing sickness absence in shift work. So far, experimental and quasi-experimental studies on the effects of increased work time control on sickness absence are lacking.To investigate the effects of using digital participatory working time scheduling software on ward-level sickness absence among Finnish hospital employees.This quasi-experimental study compared the amount of sickness absence in hospital wards using a participatory working time scheduling software (n=121 wards) and those continuing with traditional working time scheduling (n=117 wards) between 2014 and 2017. We used continuous panel data from 238 hospital wards with a total number of 9000 hospital employees (89% of women, primarily nursing staff). The ward-level measures consisted of number of employees, working hours, sickness absence spells per employee, and short (1–3) sickness absence days per employee. Two-way fixed effects and event study regressions with clustered standard errors were used to estimate the effect of using participatory scheduling software on sickness absence.Sickness absence spells and short (1–3) sickness absence days decreased by 6% and 7%, respectively in the wards using participatory scheduling compared to those using traditional scheduling. The effect became stronger as the time measured in quarters of using the participatory working time scheduling software increased.The effects of using participatory working time scheduling software indicated less ward-level sickness absence measured as spells and days in comparison to continuing with traditional scheduling. The encouraging findings are relevant not only to the health care sector but also to other sectors in which irregular shift work is a necessity.This study was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02775331) before starting the intervention phase.