Short-term and long-term sick-leave in Sweden: relationships with social circumstances, working conditions and gender.
The primary aim of the study was to analyse similarities and differences between repeated spells of short-term sick-leave (more than 3 spells of less than 7 days' duration in a 12-month period) and long-term absence through sickness (at least 1 spell of more than 59 days' duration in a 12-month period) in relation to variables representing certain social circumstances and aspects of the work situation. Particular attention was paid to gender differences. The study, which had a cross-sectional design, employed data from the surveys of living conditions (ULF) conducted by Statistics Sweden over the period 1986-89. The study group comprised 13,828 employed persons between the ages of 16 and 65. The results suggested the existence of a common mechanism by which a variety of factors are related to the taking of both repeated short spells and long-term sick-leave; gender differences with regard to the effect of working conditions on the taking of sick-leave may be incorrectly estimated if factors related to occupational structure are not taken into consideration; a less than additive effect of physical job demands and repeated short spells of sick-leave on subjective health was found.
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Federal University of Santa Catarina, Health Sciences Centre, Department of Public Health, Florianopolis/SC, Brazil.
Diderichsen
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D000041:Absenteeism; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012737:Sex Factors; D018582:Sick Leave / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology; D016526:Workload