Psychosocial work conditions and registered sickness absence: a 3-year prospective cohort study among office employees

PURPOSE To investigate associations between a wide variety of psychosocial work conditions and sickness absence in a medium-sized company. METHODS Prospective cohort study of 395 employees working in an insurance office. Self-reported psychosocial work conditions were measured by questionnaire in January 2002 and linked to registered sickness absence in the period January 2002 to December 2004 adjusting for earlier sick leave and psychological distress. RESULTS The questionnaires of 244 employees were eligible for analysis. Decision authority and co-worker support were associated with sickness absence days, but their associations with sickness absence episodes were not significant. Role clarity was associated with the number of sickness absence days, but only with the number of short sickness absence episodes in women. CONCLUSIONS The wide variety of investigated psychosocial work conditions contributed little to the explanation of sickness absence in the medium-sized insurance office.