MAGNITUDE AND CAUSES OF SICK LEAVES AMONG ACADEMICS AND STUDENTS OF AFACULTY OF MEDICINE

All sick leaves during 1989 among academics and students of a Faculty of Medicine, were analyzed. Twenty three percent of academics and 60.5 % of students had at least one sick leave during the year. The mean ge neral rate of absenteeism among academics was 3,55% (1.6% among men an d 8.09% among women). The mean lenght of sick leaves was 13.5 days. Ei ghteen percent of lost working days were due to pregnancy, lactation o r care needs of less than one year children. Tumors, trauma, respirato ry, digestive and mental ilinesses accounted for 72.8% of lost working days. Medical students had a mean general absenteeism rate of 2.66% ( ranging between 1.8% among male sixth year and 4.8% among female fourt h year students). Mean length of sick leaves was 3.5 days (ranging fro m 2.98 among female fifth year and 6.7 among male sixth year students) . Respiratory, digestive and infectious diseases accounted for 74% of lost days. No sick leaves were observed, due to pregnancy or lactation among students or due to ocupational diseases among academics.