Sickness absence in student nursing assistants following a preventive intervention programme.
BACKGROUND
We have previously shown that a multidimensional programme combining physical training, patient transfer techniques and stress management significantly reduced sickness absence rates in student nurse assistants (NAs) after 14 months of follow-up. At follow-up, the control group had reduced SF-36 scores for general health perception [general health (GH)], psychological well-being [mental health (MH)] and energy/fatigue [vitality (VT)] compared with the intervention group, which remained at the baseline level for all three measures.


OBJECTIVE
To ascertain whether this effect remained after a further 36 months of follow-up and to analyse the association of GH, MH and VT scores with sickness absence.


METHODS
This was a cluster randomized prospective study. The original study involved assessment at baseline and follow-up at 14 months (the duration of the student NA course). Of 568 subjects from the original intervention study, 306 (54%) completed a postal questionnaire at 36 months.


RESULTS
Sickness absence increased in both groups between the first and second follow-up. At the second follow-up, the intervention group had a mean of 18 days of sickness absence compared with 25 in the control group but this was not significant. GH at 14 months follow-up was found to predict sickness absence levels after 3 years. MH and VT scores showed an inverse association with sickness absence but the results were not significant.


CONCLUSIONS
The results suggest that the initial intervention did not have a sustained effect on sickness absence 36 months after initial follow-up of the study group.
Svensson
A L
AL
Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Bispebjerg University Hospital, Copenhagen 2400 KBH NV, Denmark. lyng.annemarie@gmail.com
Marott
J L
JL
Suadicani
P
P
Mortensen
O S
OS
Ebbehøj
N E
NE
D000328:Adult; D003718:Denmark; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007318:Inservice Training; D017116:Low Back Pain / Q000517:prevention & control*; D008297:Male; D055805:Moving and Lifting Patients; D009728:Nursing Assistants / Q000193:education*; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011446:Prospective Studies; D018582:Sick Leave / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000517:prevention & control