Physical, psychosocial, and organisational factors relative to sickness absence: a study based on Sweden Post

Objective-To analyse incidence of sickness for women and men relative to po tential aetiological factors at work-physical, psychosocial, and organisati onal. Methods-The study group comprised 1557 female and 1913 male employees of Sw eden Post. Sickness absence was measured by incidence of sickness (sick lea ve events and person-days at risk). Information on explanatory factors was obtained by a postal questionnaire, and incidence of sickness was based on administrative files of the company. Results-Complaints about heavy lifting and monotonous movements were associ ated with increased risk of high incidence of sickness among both women and men, For heavy lifting, an odds ratio (OR) of 1.70 (95% confidence interva l (95% CI) 1.22 to 2.39) among women, and OR 1.70 (1.20 to 2.41) among men was found. For monotonous movements the risk estimates were OR 1.42 (1.03 t o 1.97) and OR 1.45 (1.08 to 1.95) for women and men, respectively. Working instead of taking sick leave when ill, was more prevalent in the group wit h a high incidence of sickness (OR 1.74 (1.30 to 2.33) for women, OR 1.60 ( 1.22 to 2.10) for men). Overtime work of more than 50 hours a year was link ed, with low incidence of sickness for women and men, Among women, 16% repo rted bullying at the workplace, which was linked with a doubled risk of hig h incidence of sickness (OR 1.91 (1.31 to 2.77)). For men, the strongest as sociation was found for those reporting anxiety about reorganisation of the workplace (OR 1.93 (1.34 to 2.77)). Conclusions-Certain physical, psychosocial, and organisational factors were important determinants of incidence of sickness, independently of each oth er Some of the associations were sex specific.