Part-time sick leave as a treatment method for individuals with musculoskeletal disorders

There is increasing evidence that staying active is an important part of a recovery process for individuals on sick leave due to musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). It has been suggested that using part-time sick-leave rather than full-time sick leave will enhance the possibility of full recovery to the workforce, and several countries actively favor this policy. The aim of this paper is to examine if it is beneficial for individuals on sick leave due to MSDs to be on part-time sick leave compared to full-time sick leave.

A sample of 1,170 employees from the RFV-LS (register) database of the Social Insurance Agency of Sweden is used. The effect of being on part-time sick leave compared to full-time sick leave is estimated for the probability of returning to work with full recovery of lost work capacity. A two-stage recursive bivariate probit model is used to deal with the endogeneity problem.

The results indicate that employees assigned to part-time sick leave do recover to full work capacity with a higher probability than those assigned to full-time sick leave. The average treatment effect of part-time sick leave is 25 percentage points.

Considering that part-time sick leave may also be less expensive than assigning individuals to full-time sick leave, this would imply efficiency improvements from assigning individuals, when possible, to part-time sick leave.