title: Workplace social capital and risk of long-term sickness absence. Are associations modified by occupational grade?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Workplace social capital (WSC) is an emerging topic among both work environment professionals and researchers. We examined (i) whether high WSC protected against risk of long-term sickness absence (LTSA) in a random sample of the Danish workforce during a 1-year follow-up and (ii) whether the association of WSC with sickness absence was modified by occupational grade.
  
  
  METHODS
  We measured WSC by self-report in a cohort of 3075 employees and linked responses to a national register of sickness absence. We calculated hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of onset of LTSA (≥21 days), adjusted for covariates. We stratified analyses by occupational grade and examined if there was an interaction effect of WSC and occupational grade.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A one standard deviation higher WSC score predicted a reduced risk of sickness absence after adjustment for sociodemographic variables, prevalent health problems and health behaviours (HR = 0.85, 95% CI = 0.74-0.99). The HR was attenuated and lost statistical significance after further adjustment for occupational grade (HR = 0.90, 95% CI = 0.78-1.04). When stratified by occupational grade, high WSC predicted a decreased risk of sickness absence among higher grade workers (HR = 0.61, 95% CI = 0.44-0.84) but not among lower grade workers (HR = 0.98, 95% CI = 0.83-1.15). The interaction effect of WSC and occupational grade was statistically significant (HR = 0.97, 95% CI = 0.95-0.99).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  High WSC might reduce risk of LTSA. However, the protective effect appears to be limited to workers of higher occupational grade.
authors.affiliation: 1 National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Copenhagen, Denmark 2 Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Denmark 3 Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark rer@nrcwe.dk.
authors.forename: Reiner
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rugulies
authors.affiliation: 4 Center for Industrial Production, Aalborg University, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hasle
authors.affiliation: 5 The Danish National Centre for Social Research, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Jan Hyld
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Pejtersen
authors.affiliation: 1 National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Birgit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Aust
authors.affiliation: 1 National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Copenhagen, Denmark 2 Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Denmark 6 Optum, Lincoln, RI, USA.
authors.forename: Jakob Bue
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Bjorner
mesh_terms: D000041:Absenteeism; D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology; D003718:Denmark; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009790:Occupations / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D057566:Self Report; D018582:Sick Leave / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D066270:Social Capital; D017132:Workplace / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
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