Improving subjective health and reducing absenteeism in a natural work life-intervention.
A natural one-year work-life intervention to improve occupational health and reduce absenteeism was designed as a field experiment. The intervention allowed the employees in the health care sector of a municipality to take up to five days of self-administered sick leave with full financial compensation up to four times a year. 165 employees in the intervention group and 100 employees in the control group filled out a questionnaire before and after the intervention. The result showed no evidence of misuse of this sick-leave option and some positive subjective health effects were found among those who used the option. Slight improvements were found in musculoskeletal problems and for cold/influenza. There were no effects on overall absenteeism. The question of the impact of local cultures on interventions to improve occupational health is also discussed.
Saksvik
P O
PO
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Department of Psychology, Trondheim, Norway. per.saksvik@svt.ntnu.no
Nytrø
K
K
D000041:Absenteeism; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001294:Attitude to Health; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009664:Norway; D009786:Occupational Health Services; D016017:Odds Ratio; D018582:Sick Leave