[Changes in absenteeism trends in selected disease groups (data based on a 10-year observation)]

Sickness absenteeism has been exhibiting, for many years now, constantly increasing trends. A particularly rapid increase in absenteeism has been that due to diseases of the circulatory and musculoskeletal systems. The object was to follow the changes in absenteeism parameters due to those two groups of diseases. The analysis was based on absenteeism data from two precision industry plants collected over 10 years. Study I involved 6509 persons, whereas study II--11 068. In groups homogeneous in respect to sex, age, and occupational exposure changes in the following absenteeism parameters were compared: (1) % of those absent for some cause, (2) average number of days per 1 absenteeism case, (3) average number of cases per 1 patient, (4) average number of days per 1 patient annually. It has been demonstrated that the increase in absenteeism rates in the groups of diseases concerned resulted mainly from prolongation of an average duration of absenteeism case.