[Sickness absence among workers with occupational locomotor system diseases]

A long-term analysis of the data on temporary incapacity for work may be useful in identifying the most essential changes in the pattern of the causes of the disease-related incapacity for work and give the alert for taking necessary measures to protect the human health. The aim of the analysis is to define the causes of temporary incapacity for work prior to the diagnosis of chronic diseases of the locomotor system induced by the way the job is performed and the work overload in workers' groups of the highest disease incidence. The sickness absence study was carried out in the group of 395 workers with the locomotor system diseases due to the above-mentioned causes, diagnosed during the years 1996-1997. The analysis was based on numbers of days of work disability, numbers of cases and the average duration of disease. The rates of work disability days in the study group were compared with relevant rates in the occupationally active population of Poland. The analysis of sickness absence during a five-year period before the certification of the occupational diseases of the locomotor system revealed the sickness absence higher by 52% in male workers and by 60% in female workers than the average sickness absence in the general population. In this group, the diseases of the musculoskeletal system were the major cause of work disability, being responsible for 48% of sickness absence. The highest work disability was found in male workers with shoulder pain syndrome (about 49 days/person/year) and female workers with tenosynovitis and bursitis (45 days/person/year). As to the selected occupational groups, the first place was occupied by the group of workers engaged in metal processing (53 days/person/year), in which diseases of the musculoskeletal system made over 50%. In miners, besides locomotor diseases, a high level of sickness absence was due to the diseases of the nervous system and sense organs (17% of absence). In the group of dentists, the circulatory system diseases were the major cause of work disability in men (38% of absence), and the musculoskeletal system diseases in women (36% of absence). The study indicates that sickness absence can prove to be a substantial parameter that renders it possible to identify persons with enhanced risk of occupational disease by physicians involved in prophylactics and to take necessary preventive measures.