OBJECTIVES To explore general practitioners' (GPs') specific negotiation strategies regarding sick-leave issues with patients suffering from subjective health complaints. DESIGN Focus-group study. SETTING Nine focus-group interviews in three cities in different regions of Norway. PARTICIPANTS 48 GPs (31 men, 17 women; age 32-65), participating in a course dealing with diagnostic practice ...

BACKGROUND A series of studies has demonstrated that sick children fare better when their parents are present. OBJECTIVE To examine working conditions that determine whether parents can spend time with and become involved in the care of their children when they are sick. DESIGN Survey with a multivariate analysis of factors influencing parental care of sick children. PARTICIPANTS Mixed-in...

This paper analyzes the effects of starting the sick leave on part-time compared to fulltime on the probability to recover (i.e., return to work with full recovery of lost work capacity). Using a discrete choice one-factor model, we estimate mean treatment parameters and distributional treatment parameters from a common set of structural parameters. Our results indicate that part-time sick leav...

BACKGROUND Despite an increasing body of knowledge concerning gender and lifestyle factors as determinants of sickness absence in well-developed countries, the relationship between these variables has not been elucidated in emerging economic power countries, where the burden of non-communicable diseases is particularly high. This study aimed to analyze the relationships among lifestyle-related ...

OBJECTIVES To investigate the association between sick leave prescription and physician burnout and empathy in a primary care health district in Lleida, Spain. METHODS This descriptive study included 108 primary care doctors from 22 primary care centers in Lleida in 2014 (183,600 patients). Burnout was measured with the Maslach Burnout Inventory and empathy with the Jefferson Scale of Physici...

OBJECTIVES To identify new cases of musculoskeletal (MSK) disorders among employed people presenting in Norwegian primary care in 2012, frequency of sickness certification and length of sick leave. To identify patient-, diagnosis- and GP-related predictors of sickness certification, prolonged sick leave and return to work (RTW). METHODS An observational multiregister-based cohort study coveri...

AIMS The aim of this study was to investigate whether a workplace educational low back pain intervention had an effect on sick leave at the individual level and to identify possible predictors of the effect of intervention. METHODS Work units in two municipalities were cluster randomized to (a) educational meetings and peer support (45 units), (b) educational meetings, peer support and access...

BACKGROUND The knowledge of factors accurately predicting the long lasting sick leaves is sparse, but information on medical condition is believed to be necessary to identify persons at risk. Based on the current practice, with identifying sick-listed individuals at risk of long-lasting sick leaves, the objectives of this study were to inquire the diagnostic accuracy of length of sick leaves pr...

Considering work-related complaints as a public health problem, the current study aimed to analyze the frequency of musculoskeletal complaints and the association between their occurrence and severity and anthropometric and work variables. The sample included 146 women from a social rehabilitation center who answered a validated questionnaire with anthropometric data and history of work-related...

Little is known about the contribution of occupational skin exposure as a risk factor for physician-certified long-term sick leave in the general working population of Norway. This study drew a cohort (n = 12,255; response at baseline 69.9%) randomly from the general population of Norway. Occupational skin exposure (in 2009) was measured based on 5 items. The outcome of interest was physician-c...