title: Examining paid sickness absence by shift workers.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Shift workers are at greater risk than day workers with respect to psychological and physical health, yet little research has linked shift work to increased sickness absence.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the relationship between shift work and sickness absence while controlling for organizational and individual characteristics and shift work attributes that have confounded previous research.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study used archive data collected from three national surveys in Canada, each involving over 20000 employees and 6000 private-sector firms in 14 different occupational groups. The employees reported the number of paid sickness absence days in the past 12 months. Data were analysed using both chi-squared statistics and hierarchical regressions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Contrary to previous research, shift workers took less paid sickness absence than day workers. There were no differences in the length of the sickness absence between both groups or in sickness absence taken by female and male workers whether working days or shifts. Only job tenure, the presence of a union in the workplace and working rotating shifts predicted sickness absence in shift workers. The results were consistent across all three samples.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In general, shift work does not seem to be linked to increased sickness absence. However, such associations may be true for specific industries. Male and female workers did not differ in the amount of sickness absence taken. Rotating shifts, regardless of industry, predicted sickness absence among shift workers. Consideration should be given to implementing scheduled time off between shift changes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Saint Mary's University, MS 325, McNally Building, 923 Robie Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3H 3C3, vic.catano@smu.ca.
authors.forename: V M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Catano
authors.affiliation: Department of Management, Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3H 3C3.
authors.forename: A B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Bissonnette
mesh_terms: D000041:Absenteeism; D000328:Adult; D002170:Canada; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007221:Industry; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000209:etiology*; D018582:Sick Leave; D014937:Work; D014940:Work Schedule Tolerance; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Physical health; rotating shifts; shift work; sickness absence; work-life balance.