How does lowering psychosocial risks influence sickness absence? A prospective cohort study analyzed as a quasi-experiment.

ABSTRACT:

Background

We examined how reducing work-related psychosocial stressors affected long-term sickness absence of younger and older employees.

Methods

We used data from 43 843 public sector employees in Finland who participated in surveys in 2018 and 2020. We assessed psychosocial factors, such as job demands, job control, work effort, job rewards and worktime control. We obtained sickness absence data from registers for spells longer than 10 consecutive working days. We applied age-specific propensity score weighting and generalized linear models to estimate the effects of changes in psychosocial factors between 2018 and 2020 on sickness absence in 2020.

Results

Among employees under 50 years, increasing job rewards by 1 SD reduced the risk of sickness absence by 17% [r

SUBMITTER: Shiri R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10843950 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature