Workplace bullying and sickness absence in hospital staff

Objectives-In the past, evidence on the negative consequences of workplace bullying has been limited to cross sectional studies of self reported bully ing. In this study, these consequences were examined prospectively by focus ing on sickness absence in hospital staff. Methods-The Poisson regression analyses of medically certified spells (grea ter than or equal to 4 days) and self certified spells (1-3 days) of sickne ss absence, relating to bullying and other predictors of health, were based on a cohort of 674 male and 4981 female hospital employees aged 19-63 year s. Data on sickness absence were gathered from employers' registers. Bullyi ng and other predictors of health were measured by a questionnaire survey. Results-302 (5%) of the employees reported being victims of bullying. They did not differ from the other employees in terms of sex, age, occupation, t ype of job contract, hours of work, income, smoking, alcohol consumption, o r physical activity. Victims of bullying had higher body mass and prevalenc e of chronic disease, and their rates of medically and self certified spell s of sickness absence were 1.5 (95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.3 to 1.7 ) and 1.2 (1.1 to 1.4) times higher than those of the rest of the staff. Th e rate ratios remained significant after adjustment for demographic data, o ccupational background, behaviour involving risks to health, baseline healt h status, and sickness absence. Conclusion-Workplace bullying is associated with an increase in the sicknes s absenteeism of the hospital staff. Targets of bullying seem not to belong to any distinct group with certain demographic characteristics or occupati onal background.