The influence of household work and of having children on sickness absence among publicly employed women in Sweden.
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.
Voss
Margaretha
M
Section of Personal Injury Prevention, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. margaretha.voss@ki.se
Josephson
Malin
M
Stark
Stefan
S
Vaez
Marjan
M
Alexanderson
Kristina
K
Alfredsson
Lars
L
Vingård
Eva
E
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