Reasons for Sickness Absence Can Predict Employee Deaths
Employees who take long spells of
sick leave more than once in three years are at a higher risk of death than
their colleagues who take no such absence, particularly if their absence is due
to circulatory or psychiatric problems or for surgery, concludes a study on the
British Medical Journal website.
Previous research shows that medically certified
sickness absences may well capture the full range of illnesses employees
experience and that they could be a good global measure of health differentials
between employees. It has been suggested that the specific reasons for absence
such as psychiatric problems or heart disease may improve the prediction of
premature death.
Jenny Head from University College London and
colleagues investigated whether the reason for sickness absence improved the
prediction of death compared with overall sickness absence irrespective of
diagnosis.
They obtained sickness absence records for 6,478
British civil servants between 1985 and 1988 and analyzed associations with death
until 2004.
They found that deaths increased as the medically
certified absence rates (spells of more than 7 days) increased. The almost 30%
of men and women who had one or more medically certified absence in three years
had a 66% increased risk of premature death than those with no such absence.
The authors report that by including the diagnosis
for sickness absence they significantly improved the prediction of the risk of
death. For instance, employees taking sickness absences due to circulatory
disease were four times more likely to die prematurely than their colleagues
with no absence. Those who took absence due to psychiatric diseases were nearly
twice as likely to die prematurely, and those with a surgical operation
diagnosis were more than twice as likely.
Interestingly, one or more spells of absence with
a psychiatric diagnosis was predictive of a two and a half fold increase in
cancer related death.
However, employees taking spells of sickness
absence with a musculo-skeletal diagnosis were not at increased risk of death
compared to their colleagues who took no absence.
The authors conclude that the monitoring of
reasons for sickness absence could contribute to identifying groups at
increased health risks and who need a targeted intervention.
In an accompanying editorial, Johannes Anema and
Allard van der Beek from the VU University Medical Centre in the Netherlands,
suggest that specific diagnostic information on sickness absence could provide
general practitioners with "a useful biopsychosocial tool" to
identify workers with an increased risk of serious illness or risk of death.
In addition, Anema and van der Beek say that this
tool could also be used to identify employees with work related health problems
such as stress and high job demands, for targeted intervention by occupational
physicians.