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Reason for sickness absence can predict employees’ death risk
By Jimmy Downs
Oct 3, 2008 - 10:36:16 AM

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  Friday October 3, 2008 (foodconsumer.org) -- A new study published on bmj.com today says employees who take long sick leave more than once in three years are at a higher risk of premature death than those who don't take any.

The risk is particularly higher if their absence is due to circulatory or psychiatric problems or for surgery.

Early studies suggest the specific reasons for absence such as psychiatric problems or heart disease may better the prediction of premature death.

The current study led by Jenny Head from University College London and colleagues showed the reason for sickness leave in other cases may also improve the prediction of death.

The researchers went through sickness absence records for 6,478 British civil servants between 1985 and 1988 and analyzed the association of sick leave with death until 2004.

They found deaths increased as the rate of medically certified absence that lasted more than 7 days, increased.

Men and women who had one or more medically certified absence in three years were at a 66% increased risk of premature death than those did not have any, the study found.

The authors say in their report that considering the diagnosis for sickness absence they were able to significantly improve the prediction of the risk of death.

They found employees who took sick absences for circulatory disease were four times more likely to die prematurely than those who did not.  Those who took sick leave for psychiatric diseases were twice as likely to die prematurely while those who took a sickness leave due to a surgical operation were more than twice as likely to die as those who did not.

But not all spells of sickness leave were associated with increased risk of death. Sickness absence for a musculoskeletal diagnosis was not associated with increased risk.  Sick leave for a psychiatric diagnosis on the other hand was associated with a 2.5-fold higher risk of death related to cancer.

The authors conclude that the monitoring of reasons for sickness leaves could help identify people at increase health risks and provide needed intervention.