Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 6, 2026

A Method of Trigonometric Modelling of Seasonal Variation Demonstrated with Multiple Sclerosis Relapse Data
Published on: December 9, 2015
Time to recurrence of mental health-related absence from work
G Norder1, R Hoedeman2, J de Bruin2
1ArboNed Occupational Health Service, 3508 AB Utrecht, The Netherlands, Department of Health Sciences, Division of Community and Occupational Medicine, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, 9700 AD Groningen, The Netherlands, giny.norder@arboned.nl.
Background:
It is unclear when occupational health providers should re-evaluate workers after mental health-related absences from work.
Aims:
To investigate the time to recurrence of mental health-related absences, stratified by International Classification of Diseases-Tenth Revision (ICD-10) diagnostic categories.
Methods:
A 10-year observational study of workers employed at a steel mill. Sickness absence data were retrieved from an occupational health register. Mental health-related absences were defined as absence due to emotional disturbance or mental and behavioural disorders. The first mental health-related absence since baseline was called the index episode. Recurrences were defined as mental health-related absences occurring >28 days after recovery from the index episode. The frequency of recurrent mental health-related absence was assessed by the recurrence density (RD) per 1000 person-years. The time to recurrent mental health-related absence was investigated by Kaplan-Meier survival analysis.
Results:
Of 15461 workers, 391 had recurrent mental health-related absences. RD was 30.5, 34.3, 29.9 and 37.7 per 1000 person-years after index episodes due to emotional disturbance, mood disorders, neurotic disorders and other psychiatric disorders, respectively. RDs did not differ across ICD-10 diagnostic categories. The median time to recurrent mental health-related absence was 15.2 months [95% confidence interval (CI) 12.6-17.7] and was shortest for mood disorders (5.2, 95% CI 1.4-8.9 months) and specific psychiatric disorders (5.3, 95% CI 1.0-13.1 months).
Conclusions:
Based on this observational study, we suggest that occupational and primary health care providers consider reviewing the mental health status of workers 6 months after recovery from mental health-related absence.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Stress and Mental Health
Individuals with depression often experience challenges in both their personal and professional...
Classification of Illness
An illness is a response to a disease in which the person's level of functioning is changed compared with a previous level. The general classification of illness includes acute and chronic.
Acute illness is severe...
Depressive Disorders: MDD and Dysthymia
Factors Affecting Illness
For instance, risk factors are connected to illness,...
Stress Prevention and Stress Management Techniques IV
Psychological and Sociocultural Causes of Schizophrenia

