Sickness absence and workplace levels of satisfaction with psychosocial work conditions at public service workplaces.
BACKGROUND
The objective of this study was to examine the impact of psychosocial work conditions on sickness absence while addressing methodological weaknesses in earlier studies.


METHODS
The participants were 13,437 employees from 698 public service workplace units in Aarhus County, Denmark. Satisfaction with psychosocial work conditions was rated on a scale from 0 (low) to 10 (high). Individual ratings were aggregated to workplace scores. Analysis of variance was used to compare the average number of days of yearly sickness absence in three groups with different levels of satisfaction with psychosocial work conditions.


RESULTS
Sickness absence was 30.8% lower in the most satisfied group (11.7 days/year (CI 95%: 10.2; 13.1)) than in the least satisfied group (16.9 days/year (CI 95%: 15.3; 18.6)) adjusted for the covariates included.


CONCLUSIONS
Satisfaction with psychosocial work conditions has a strong and independent impact on sickness absence. Am. J. Ind. Med. 52:153-161, 2009. (c) 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Munch-Hansen
Torsten
T
Department of Occupational Medicine, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark. tomha@as.aaa.dk
Wieclaw
Joanna
J
Agerbo
Esben
E
Westergaard-Nielsen
Niels
N
Rosenkilde
Mikael
M
Bonde
Jens Peter
JP
D000041:Absenteeism; D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D008875:Middle Aged; D016272:Occupational Health; D011594:Psychometrics; D017150:Public Sector; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017132:Workplace / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*