OBJECTIVES To determine whether, from a healthcare perspective, a specific occupational health intervention is cost effective in reducing sickness absence when compared with usual care in occupational health in workers with high risk of sickness absence. METHODS Economic evaluation alongside a randomised controlled trial. 418 workers with high risk of sickness absence from one corporation wer...

STUDY OBJECTIVE To investigate the effect of the local economy, as measured by municipal revenue and local unemployment rate, on sickness absence among the employed. DESIGN A prospective cohort study of 60 160 public sector employees (46 081 women, 14 079 men) with ecological measures of municipal revenue and local unemployment rate 1999-2000 and individual measures of sickness absence at bas...

BACKGROUND Stress is known to activate or exacerbate dermatoses, but the relationships between chronic stress, job-related stress and sickness absence among occupational hand eczema (OHE) patients are inadequately understood. AIMS To see whether chronic stress or burnout symptoms were associated with cumulative sickness absence in patients with OHE and to determine which factors predicted sic...

BACKGROUND Sickness absence is increasing in public work places in Denmark where shift work is common. AIMS The aim of this prospective study was to predict the hazard ratio (HR) of short- and long-term sickness absence due to shift work in Danish shift workers. METHODS A total of 1008 shift workers and 4009 day workers were followed up for short- and long-time sickness absence. RESULTS A...

The assessment of sickness absence is a challenge in spite of accessible numbers of spells, persons, and days of absence in public and employer registers. Concepts and their definitions are still to a small extent standardized, and clear and explicit definitions need to be provided. In epidemiological studies, the definition of the study base is important, and in sickness absence research a pre...

 Prevention of long-term work absence by planning and anticipating return to work in co-operation between different stakeholders is crucial INTRODUCTION Managing long-term work absence due to sickness continues to be a priority of many EU-countries. Direct and indirect costs to organisations and companies are extremely high. These costs include sick pay, social insurance payments, costs of tem...

OBJECTIVES Data on the prevalence of chronic diseases and their relationship with sickness absence in the Italian public employees are rather scarce. Therefore, in the first place, we assessed the distribution of chronic diseases in the employees of the University of Ferrara. As a next step, we investigated the possible associations between each chronic disease and cumulative days of all-cause ...

OBJECTIVES In May 2008, the National Health Service (NHS) Lanarkshire (NHSL) implemented a unique telephone-based sickness absence management service entitled "EASY" (Early Access to Support for You). The EASY service supplements existing absence policies and enables telephone communication between the absentee, their line manager, and the EASY service from the first day of absence and referral...

Increasing levels of physical activity are proven to have a positive impact on physical health and mental well-being. Physical activity is also known to influence work-related outcomes such as reducing sickness absence. Sickness absence is a major public health problem with wide economic impact on society and there may be much to gain from physical activity interventions aimed at preventing lon...

Mental disorders are a frequent cause of morbidity and sickness absence in working populations; however, the status of psychiatric sickness absence as a predictor of mortality is not established. The authors tested the hypothesis that psychiatric sickness absence predicts mortality from leading medical causes. Data were derived from the French GAZEL cohort study (n = 19,962). Physician-certifie...