OBJECTIVES Policies have been introduced to reduce sickness absence, but their effectiveness is largely unknown. In a natural experiment, we examined effects of legislative changes on return to work and work participation. METHODS The source population consisted of up to 72,164 Finnish public sector employees with a permanent job contract in 2008-2011 (before) and in 2013-2014 (after). We use...

BACKGROUND Psychosocial work conditions, particularly psychological job demands, are inconsistently associated with sickness absence rates. This might be the result of investigating the psychosocial work environment at the individual level, reflecting personal perceptions rather than actual demands. AIM To investigate associations between sickness absence and psychosocial work conditions at b...

Sickness absence rates are higher in winter than in summer and also the incidence of many diseases is affected by climatic conditions. Both these facts lead one to suspect that there is a genuine causative relationship between the weather and sickness absence. The object of this investigation is to develop a model to illustrate this relationship in order to obtain some idea of its precise form....

In order to investigate the extent to which musculoskeletal sickness absence was influenced by a range of circumstances concerning family background and health in early life, we established a register-based cohort of all live-born in Norway between 1967 and 1976. Personal data on parental factors and health early in life were recorded prospectively from birth onward in the Medical Birth Registr...

BACKGROUND We investigated whether changes in alcohol use predict changes in the risk of sickness absence in a case-crossover design. METHODS Finnish public sector employees were surveyed in 2000, 2004 and 2008 on alcohol use and covariates. Heavy drinking was defined as either a weekly intake that exceeded recommendations (12 units for women; 23 for men) or having an extreme drinking session...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to highlight major predictors of the frequency of sickness absence in a group of workers directly involved in customer service. MATERIAL AND METHODS The study was carried out on a random sample of 229 women employed as assistants and clerks in post offices. The survey was based on the Subjective Work, Health Status and Life Style Characteristics Questionna...

BACKGROUND Common mental disorders (CMDs) are an important cause of sickness absence and long-term work disability. Although CMDs are known to have high recurrence rates, little is known about the recurrence of sickness absence due to CMDs. The aim of this study was to investigate the recurrence of sickness absence due to CMDs, including distress, adjustment disorders, depressive disorders and ...

BACKGROUND Both musculoskeletal pain-intensity in relation to a specific location (e.g. lower back or shoulder) and pain in multiple body regions have been shown to be associated with impaired function and sickness absence, but the impact of pain intensity on the association between widespread pain and sickness absence has not been studied. Additionally it is unknown whether care-seeking in gen...

Objectives This study aimed to develop and validate a risk prediction model for long-term sickness absence. Methods Survey responses on work- and lifestyle-related questions from 65 775 public-sector employees were linked to sickness absence records to develop a prediction score for medically-certified sickness absence lasting >9 days and ≥90 days. The score was externally validated using data ...

There have been few epidemiological studies on recurrent sickness absence due to depression after returning to work (RTW). The objective of this study was to investigate the prognosis of workers who are RTW with depression in a Japanese company. This study employed a descriptive epidemiology study design. Subjects of this study were 540 employees who worked full-time and were registered in the ...