[Labor absenteeism in a social security institution and some related factors]

To analyse the sociocultural and organizational factors of the health services related to the unplanned absenteeism.

By means of a cross and descriptive analysis, a group of workers from a Social Security Institution was studied. The previous year, this group presented a significant absenteeism, which means that the worker had stayed away from his work-place more than 12 working days in the year of 2003. After having the consent of the worker, a medical-social study took place at the worker's home. Descriptive statistics and correlation of Pearson were used.

The average age was of 40.6 +/- 7.7 years old; 68.8 % of them were married, and the integrated family represented the 74 %. The group of age which had the greatest percentage of absenteeism was the one of 41 to 50 years old, with 49.2 %. The correlation between years of seniority and absenteeism was 0.027 (p = ns). The activity performed by 87 % of the workers was related to their profession or labor profile.

The greatest absenteeism percentage corresponds to the group of age between 41 and 50 years old, and there was no correlation found between seniority and absenteeism; however, there is an adequate satisfaction with the activities that they carry out in their work-place.