title: Does sickness presenteeism have an impact on future general health?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The primary aim of this prospective study was to investigate whether working despite illness, so called "sickness presenteeism", has an impact on the future general health of two different working populations during a follow-up period of 3 years.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study was based on two bodies of data collected at a number of Swedish workplaces from 1999 to 2003. The first material comprised 6,901 employees from the public sector and the second 2,862 subjects from the private sector. A comprehensive survey was issued three times: at baseline, after 18 months and after 3 years. Apart from the explanatory variable sickness presenteeism, several potential confounders were considered. The outcome variable was good/excellent versus fair/poor self-reported health.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Sickness presenteeism at baseline was consistently found to heighten the risk of fair/poor health at both the 18-month and 3-year follow ups even after adjusting for the detected confounders.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first to show that sickness presenteeism appears to be an independent risk factor for future fair/poor general health.
authors.affiliation: Division of Intervention and Implementation Research, Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. gunnar.bergstrom@ki.se
authors.forename: Gunnar
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bergström
authors.forename: Lennart
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bodin
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hagberg
authors.forename: Tomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lindh
authors.forename: Gunnar
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Aronsson
authors.forename: Malin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Josephson
mesh_terms: D000041:Absenteeism; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016272:Occupational Health; D017149:Private Sector; D011446:Prospective Studies; D017150:Public Sector; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013548:Sweden