The Association Between Physical Activity, Sitting Time, Sleep Duration, and Sleep Quality as Correlates of Presenteeism

OBJECTIVE This study aims to examine the relationship of lifestyle behaviors (physical activity, work and non-work sitting time, sleep quality, and sleep duration) with presenteeism while controlling for sociodemographics, work- and health-related variables. METHODS Data were collected from 710 workers (aged 20 to 76 years; 47.9% women) from randomly selected Australian adults who completed an online survey. Linear regression was used to examine the relationship between lifestyle behaviors and presenteeism. RESULTS Poorer sleep quality (standardized regression coefficients [B] = 0.112; P < 0.05), suboptimal duration (B = 0.081; P < 0.05), and lower work sitting time (B = -0.086; P < 0.05) were significantly associated with higher presenteeism when controlling for all lifestyle behaviors. Engaging in three risky lifestyle behaviors was associated with higher presenteeism (B = 0.150; P < 0.01) compared with engaging in none or one. CONCLUSIONS The results of this study highlight the importance of sleep behaviors for presenteeism and call for behavioral interventions that simultaneously address sleep in conjunction with other activity-related behaviors.