title: Preventing Sickness Absence With Career Management Intervention: A Randomized Controlled Field Trial.
abstract: This study examined whether a group intervention focusing on building up preparedness for career management can prevent future sickness absence.Register-based data on the number of sickness absence days and sickness absence episodes were examined as outcomes of the intervention among 684 employees in 17 organizations in a randomized controlled trial. Sickness absence data were collected covering a period from 1 year before (baseline) to approximately 2 years after the intervention (follow-up). The data were analyzed using zero-inflated negative binomial models.After controlling for baseline absence, age, gender, and organization, the intervention was effective in decreasing the number of longer sickness absences (lasting longer than > 2 weeks), but no other significant effects were found.These findings point out that it is feasible to use a career management intervention to prevent future sickness absence in work organizations.
authors.affiliation: Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki (Dr Toppinen-Tanner, Mr Mutanen, Drs Martimo, Vuori), Turku School of Economics, Turku (Dr Böckerman), Labour Institute for Economic Research, Helsinki, Finland (Dr Böckerman), IZA, Bonn, Germany (Dr Böckerman), and Mutual Pension Insurance Elo, Espoo, Finland (Dr Martimo).
authors.forename: Salla
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Toppinen-Tanner
authors.forename: Petri
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Böckerman
authors.forename: Pertti
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mutanen
authors.forename: Kari-Pekka
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Martimo
authors.forename: Jukka
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vuori
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009786:Occupational Health Services; D018582:Sick Leave