Effects on presenteeism and absenteeism from a 1-year workplace randomized controlled trial among health care workers
Jeanette Reffstrup Christensen1, Kristian Overgaard, Klaus Hansen
1From the Department of Public Health (Drs Christensen and Overgaard), Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark; National Research Centre for the Working Environment (Mr Hansen and Dr Holtermann), Copenhagen, Denmark; and Institute of Sports Science and Clinical Biomechanics (Dr Søgaard), University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark.
Objectives:
It is unknown whether workplace interventions successfully improving health outcomes can also provide concurrent improvements in presenteeism and absenteeism.
Methods:
A 1-year cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted on 144 employees at a care unit in Denmark. The intervention consisted of calorie-limited diet, physical exercise, and cognitive behavioral training during working hours 1 hour per week. The reference group was offered presentations about healthy lifestyle. Absenteeism and presenteeism (productivity, workability, and sickness absence) were recorded at baseline and after 3 and 12 months of intervention.
Results:
In intention-to-treat analysis, a significant effect of the intervention was found for productivity after 3 months. Nevertheless, after 12 months no significant effects on absenteeism or presenteeism were found.
Conclusions:
This study suggests that a worksite intervention, despite successfully reducing overweight, does not induce lasting improvements on absenteeism or presenteeism.
