Sickness absence frequency among women working in hospital care

Frequent short sickness absences result in understaffing and interfere with work processes. We need more knowledge about factors associated with this type of absence.

To investigate associations between the frequency of previous sickness absence and self-reported perceptions of health and work.

Cross-sectional study of female hospital care workers in which health, work characteristics and coping styles were assessed by questionnaire and linked to the number of sickness absence episodes recorded in the preceding 5 years using negative binomial regression analysis for counts distinguishing between short (1-7 days) and long (>7 days) episodes of absence after adjusting for age and duration of employment in December 2007 and hours worked between 2003 and 2007.

Of 350 women employed for at least 5 years, 237 (68%) answered the questionnaire. The hours worked over the 5 year period [rate ratio (RR) = 1.2] and problem solving coping style score (RR = 1.1) were positively associated with the number of short sickness absence episodes. Age (RR = 0.8) and good general health (RR = 0.7) were inversely related to the number of both short and long episodes. Self-reported mental health and work characteristics were not shown to be related to the frequency of sickness absence.

Hours worked, problem-solving coping style, age and general health showed associations with the frequency of previous sickness absence among women who had worked at least 5 years in health care. Future prospective studies on the frequency of sickness absence should consider the impact of these factors further.