Physical capacity and risk for long-term sickness absence: a prospective cohort study among 8664 female health care workers.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the prospective associations between self-reported physical capacity and risk of long-term sickness absence among female health care workers.


METHODS
Female health care workers answered a questionnaire about physical capacity and were followed in a national register of sickness absence lasting for two or more consecutive weeks during 1-year follow-up. Using Cox regression hazard ratio analyses adjusted for age, smoking, body mass index, physical workload, job seniority, psychosocial work conditions, and previous sickness absence, we modeled risk estimates for sickness absence from low and medium physical capacity.


RESULTS
Low and medium aerobic fitness, low muscle strength, low flexibility, and low overall physical capacity significantly increased the risk for sickness absence with 20% to 34% compared with health care workers with high capacity.


CONCLUSIONS
Low physical capacity increases the risk of long-term sickness absence among female health care workers.
From the National Research Centre for the Working Environment (Ms Rasmussen, Drs Andersen, Clausen, Jørgensen, and Holtermann), Copenhagen; and Administrative Headquarter of The Capital Region of Denmark (Dr Strøyer), Department of Financial affairs, Data Unit, Hillerød.
Charlotte Diana Nørregaard
CD
Rasmussen
Lars Louis
LL
Andersen
Thomas
T
Clausen
Jesper
J
Strøyer
Marie Birk
MB
Jørgensen
Andreas
A
Holtermann
D000041:Absenteeism; D000328:Adult; D003718:Denmark; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010809:Physical Fitness; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012042:Registries; D012307:Risk Factors; D057566:Self Report; D018582:Sick Leave / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors