Short sickness absence and subsequent sickness absence due to mental disorders - a follow-up study among municipal employees

Abstract

BackgroundMental disorders are common diagnostic causes for longer sickness absence and disability retirement in OECD-countries. Short sickness absence spells are also common, and neither trivial for health and work ability. We studied how prior short sickness absence spells and days are associated with subsequent longer sickness absence due to mental disorders in two age-groups of municipal employees during a 2-, 5- and 9-year follow-up.MethodsThe analyses covered 20–34 and 35–49-year-old employees of the City of Helsinki in 2004. Those with prior ≥14 day sickness absence in 2002, 2003 or 2004 were excluded. Women and men were pooled together. Short, 1–13-day sickness absence spells and days were calculated per the actual time of employment during 2004. Logistic regression analysis was used to calculate odds ratios (OR) and their 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the subsequent long (≥14 days) sickness absence due to mental disorders during three follow-ups.ResultsThe risk for long sickness absence due to mental disorders increased with increasing amount of short sickness absence spells and days. 3 or more short sickness absence spells and 8–14 sickness absence days from short spells in 2004 were strongly associated with subsequent long sickness absence in all three follow-ups. The associations were strongest for the 2-year follow-up; the younger employees tended to have higher risks than the older ones.ConclusionsThree spells or 8 days of short sickness absence per year constitutes a high risk for subsequent long sickness absence due to mental disorders and preventive measures should be considered.

Effectiveness of internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy in reducing sickness absence among young employees with depressive symptoms: study protocol for a large-scale pragmatic randomised controlled trial

“…Short sickness absence spells constitute a large bulk of total sickness absence; by excluding these, we would have excluded a large number of absence days. An earlier study in the present study setting showed that the risk for long sickness absence for mental disorders increased with an increasing number of short sickness absence spells and days 52…”

Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Device-Measured Sedentary Behaviour are Associated with Sickness Absence in Office Workers

“…It can also lead to financial strain on companies and society [10]. Furthermore, several short sickness absence spells have been shown to predict later long sickness absence [12] and can also predict premature mortality [13], even when controlling for health status.…”

Frequent short sickness absence, occupational health service utilisation and long-term sickness absence due to mental disorders among young employees

“…Our threshold represents the closest to the upper quartile of the population. It is to be noted that our definition deviates from the more frequently used threshold found in the research literature (three-to-four short-term SA spells/year) (Notenbomer et al 2019;Koopmans et al 2008;Sumanen et al 2017). We expect the high number of short-term SA spells to reflect the employer's policy to allow self-referred SA up until three working days.…”