[Changes in the parameters of sickness absenteeism analysed over a 20 year period]

Sickness absenteeism increase in a given industrial plant within homogeneous employee groups may be due to: increased incidence, increased duration of absences, and increased frequency of obtaining the certificates of temporary work disability in some determined diseases. The study involved the same plant in which studies during the sixties and the seventies had been performed. The purpose of the study was to determine which of the parameters was responsible for the changes in absenteeism rate during the period 1967-1987. The analysis showed that the sickness absenteeism increase in the plant over the 20-year period discussed was 46% in men and 40% in women. The increase resulted from increased average duration of absence from ca 7 days to ca 11 days. The increase of the average number of the days of absence per one sick person was ca 9 days per year. Taking into account the employees' age it is to be noticed that in the youngest groups the increase of sickness absenteeism rate among young men was accompanied by an increase in the number of cases per one sick person per year, whereas the increase in the rate of sickness absenteeism among young women resulted also from the increase of the percentage of absentees. In those groups there was also observed an increase of average duration of absence over the same period.