Occupational rewards relate to sickness absence frequency but not duration

Work stress is an important problem that shifted sickness absence research to the psychosocial work environment at the expense of physical or chemical hazards. Most studies investigated the psychosocial work environment using the Demand-Control model. However, this model does not consider coping styles which are important in absenteeism. The Effort-Reward Imbalance model takes coping into account. Little is known about occupational rewards and their relationship with sickness absence. This study investigated the relations between occupational rewards and the frequency and duration of sickness absence among 366 workers. The data of 326 employees (89%) were suitable for statistical analysis. Rewards in terms of job esteem (OR = 0.64; 95% CI = 0.47-0.87) and job perspectives (OR = 0.59; 95% CI = 0.57-0.84) were negatively related to the absence frequency in men. Satisfaction with income (OR = 0.53; 95% CI = 0.35-0.81) was negatively related to the absence frequency in women. Occupational rewards were not associated with the mean duration of absence episodes. The associations we found warrant more attention for occupational rewards in sickness absence research.