Minor psychiatric morbidity in employed men and women and its contribution to sickness absence

A pilot study is described on 41 men and women of similar age, social and educational backgrounds, in 2 working environments. The use of psychiatric interviews in such occupational settings is demonstrated to be acceptable to both management and employees. Preliminary coefficients of validity for the General Health Questionnaire are found to compare favourably with those in clinical or community settings. Though the prevalence of minor psychiatric morbidity in these small samples did not differ between the sexes, the women had twice as many spells of absence as the men. Considering women separately, minor psychiatric morbidity was found to be significantly correlated with absence. However, psychiatric illness was a less important predictor of absence in men.