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Drinking habits and sickness absence: The contribution of working conditions
- Source :
- Scandinavian Journal of Public Health. 37:846-854
- Publication Year :
- 2009
- Publisher :
- SAGE Publications, 2009.
-
Abstract
- Aims: The main aim was to examine whether drinking habits including average, binge and problem drinking are associated with self-certified and medically confirmed sickness absence among middle-aged municipal employees. Another aim was to examine whether psychosocial and physical working conditions and work arrangements explain these associations. Methods: The data on drinking habits and working conditions of 5,119 female and 1,390 male middle-aged employees of the City of Helsinki was obtained from postal questionnaires collected in 2000—2002. The data on sickness absence (2000—2005) were derived from the employer’s registers. Poisson regression analysis with self-certified (1—3 days) and medically confirmed (over 3 days) sickness absence spells as outcomes was used in performing the analyses. Results: Heavy average, binge and problem drinking were all associated with an increase in self-certified sickness absence. Both non-drinkers and heavy drinkers had excess medically confirmed sickness absence compared to moderate drinkers. Problem drinking and among women also binge drinking were associated with medically confirmed sickness absence. Psychosocial working conditions slightly attenuated the association of drinking habits and sickness absence mainly among men. Physical working conditions and work arrangements slightly explained medically confirmed sickness absence among male problem drinkers. Conclusions: All studied drinking habits were associated with both self-certified and medically confirmed sickness absence. Thus, a decrease in unhealthy drinking habits among employees is likely to prevent sickness absence. The effects of working conditions were small but psychosocial working conditions slightly explained the associations between drinking habits and sickness absence mainly among men.
- Subjects :
- Adult
Male
medicine.medical_specialty
Alcohol Drinking
030508 substance abuse
Poison control
Suicide prevention
Occupational safety and health
03 medical and health sciences
symbols.namesake
0302 clinical medicine
Surveys and Questionnaires
Environmental health
Absenteeism
Injury prevention
Humans
Medicine
030212 general & internal medicine
Poisson regression
Workplace
Psychiatry
business.industry
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
General Medicine
Middle Aged
Socioeconomic Factors
Sick leave
symbols
Female
Sick Leave
0305 other medical science
business
Alcohol-Related Disorders
Psychosocial
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 16511905 and 14034948
- Volume :
- 37
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Scandinavian Journal of Public Health
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....44a6de577e15b2607de1af76c10c3440