Work-life interference and physician-certified sick leave: a prospective study of a general working population

Work-life interference has been associated with adverse health outcomes. Here, we quantify the association between work-life interference and subsequent sick leave.

Respondents from a randomly drawn cohort of the general working Norwegian population were interviewed in 2009, 2013 and/or 2016. Mixed-effects logistic regression models were used to assess prospective associations of self-reported work-life interference and risk of subsequent physician-certified sick leave of 1-16 days (low-level) and >16 days (high-level) in strata of men and women. To quantify the importance of work-life interference as risk factors for sick leave, we estimated the population attributable risk (PAR).

Both low- and high-level sick leave were most prevalent among women while the prevalence of work-life interference was similar between sexes. Risk of sick leave was higher among women reporting work-life interference sometimes or often in comparison with seldom or never {low- and high-level sick leave odds ratio (OR) = 1.21 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.07-1.37] and 1.30 (95% CI = 1.14-1.49), respectively}. The associations for high-level sick leave progressively increased with the level of work-life interference [highest OR = 1.44 (95% CI = 1.19-1.75)]. In men, there was no consistent higher risk of sick leave according to more frequent work-life interference [low- and high-level sick leave OR = 1.00 (95% CI = 0.87-1.14) and 0.98 (95% CI = 0.84-1.16), respectively], but the risk of high-level sick leave tended to be higher among men reporting work-life interference often (OR = 1.21, 95% CI = 0.98-1.50). Estimating PAR, 6.69% (95% CI = 1.52-11.74) of low-level and 9.94% (95% CI = 4.22-15.45) of high-level sick leave could be attributed to work-life interference among women.

Self-reported work-life interference was associated with a higher risk of sick leave, with the most consistent results among women.