title: The influence of household work and of having children on sickness absence among publicly employed women in Sweden.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate whether family obligations influence the risk of sickness absence among female municipal employees in Sweden.
  
  
  METHODS
  A 1-year prospective cohort study of 1464 female municipal employees <50 years of age in Sweden in 2000 was conducted using questionnaire responses and absence data from the employers' personnel records. The relative risk of having children <16 years of age in the home, marital status, household work, financial situation, working hours and work-family conflicts for repeated sick-leave spells (>or=4 spells) and long-term sickness absence (>or=28 days) were calculated by applying Poisson regression models.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Women reporting financial strain or work-family conflicts were at elevated risk for long-term sickness absence. Having children was not a risk factor for repeated sick-leave spells or long-term sickness absence among married/cohabiting women. Single women with children had a two-fold greater risk of repeated sick-leave spells than single women without children.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings suggest that the combination of gainful employment and children does not influence the risk of repeated sick-leave spells or long-term sickness absence among married/cohabiting publicly employed women. However, this was not true for single women with children, which indicates that their circumstances are particularly strained.
authors.affiliation: Section of Personal Injury Prevention, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. margaretha.voss@ki.se
authors.forename: Margaretha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Voss
authors.forename: Malin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Josephson
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Stark
authors.forename: Marjan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vaez
authors.forename: Kristina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Alexanderson
authors.forename: Lars
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Alfredsson
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Vingård
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005191:Family Characteristics; D054541:Family Conflict; D005260:Female; D006796:Household Work; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D016487:Parenting; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D018582:Sick Leave; D015406:Single Parent / Q000523:psychology; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology; D014931:Women, Working / Q000523:psychology