Work-related psychosocial events as triggers of sick leave - results from a Swedish case-crossover study

BMC Public Health

Research Article

Kristina Alexanderson¹  Christina Lindholm¹  Jette Möller²  Hanna Hultin²  Johan Hallqvist³  Gun Johansson⁴  Ingvar Lundberg⁵ 

[1] Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Division of Insurance Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, SE-171 77, Stockholm, Sweden;Department of Public Health Sciences, Division of Public Health Epidemiology, Karolinska Institutet, Norrbacka 7thfloor, SE-171 76, Stockholm, Sweden;Department of Public Health Sciences, Division of Public Health Epidemiology, Karolinska Institutet, Norrbacka 7thfloor, SE-171 76, Stockholm, Sweden;Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences, Division of Preventive Medicine, Uppsala University, Box 564, SE-751 22, Uppsala, Sweden;National Centre for Work and Rehabilitation, Department of Medicine and Health Sciences, IMH/RAR, Linköping University, SE-581 83, Linköping, Sweden;Uppsala University, Department of Medical Sciences, Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Uppsala University Hospital, SE-751 85, Uppsala, Sweden;

关键词: Sick Leave;    Sexual Harassment;    Work Ability;    Case Period;    Psychosocial Event;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-11-175

 received in 2010-06-22, accepted in 2011-03-23,  发布年份 2011

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundAlthough illness is an important cause of sick leave, it has also been suggested that non-medical risk factors may influence this association. If such factors impact on the period of decision making, they should be considered as triggers. Yet, there is no empirical support available.The aim was to investigate whether recent exposure to work-related psychosocial events can trigger the decision to report sick when ill.MethodsA case-crossover design was applied to 546 sick-leave spells, extracted from a Swedish cohort of 1 430 employees with a 3-12 month follow-up of new sick-leave spells. Exposure in a case period corresponding to an induction period of one or two days was compared with exposure during control periods sampled from workdays during a two-week period prior to sick leave for the same individual. This was done according to the matched-pair interval and the usual frequency approaches. Results are presented as odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI).ResultsMost sick-leave spells happened in relation to acute, minor illnesses that substantially reduced work ability. The risk of taking sick leave was increased when individuals had recently been exposed to problems in their relationship with a superior (OR 3.63; CI 1.44-9.14) or colleagues (OR 4.68; CI 1.43-15.29). Individuals were also more inclined to report sick on days when they expected a very stressful work situation than on a day when they were not under such stress (OR 2.27; CI 1.40-3.70).ConclusionsExposure to problems in workplace relationships or a stressful work situation seems to be able to trigger reporting sick. Psychosocial work-environmental factors appear to have a short-term effect on individuals when deciding to report sick.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Hultin et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011