title: Sickness-related absence among employees at a tertiary care center in Lebanon.
abstract: The authors studied the rate of sickness-related absence of employees at a tertiary care center. They examined sickness-related absence records of employees, including nurses, food service workers, housekeeping, and security personnel, in a university teaching hospital in Lebanon over a period of 1 year. These departments included 1,010 employees, of which 47% took sickness absences during the study period. In all, 49.02% of the nursing employees, 43.67% of the food service workers, 37.79% of the housekeeping employees, and 47.5% of the protection/security workers took sickness-related absences. Employees in younger age groups took the majority of sicknessrelated absences; in general, these constituted short-duration sickness-related absences (relative to those taken by emploees in older age groups; dietary personnel were the exception to this pattern). Principal causes of sickness-related absences were respiratory illness and musculoskeletal problems. The authors observed that distribution of sickness-related absences among the departments studied was similar to the actual distribution of employees. They considered reasons for sicknessrelated absences as pertinent to each category.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, American University of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon. dr171@aub.edu.lb
authors.forename: Diana V
authors.initials: DV
authors.lastname: Rahme
authors.forename: Gabrial N
authors.initials: GN
authors.lastname: Razzouk
authors.forename: Umayya M
authors.initials: UM
authors.lastname: Musharrafieh
authors.forename: Amal C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Rahi
authors.forename: Madelene M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Akel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D004282:Documentation; D005260:Female; D006785:Hospitals, University / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007861:Lebanon / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010564:Personnel, Hospital / Q000145:classification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D018582:Sick Leave / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*