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03 Oct 2008
Workers who take long periods of sick leave more than once in a three-year period are at a higher risk of death than colleagues who do not take such absences, according to a new study by staff at University College London in the UK.
The researchers obtained sickness absence records for 6,478 civil servants between 1985 and 1988 and analysed associations with death until 2004.
It was found that loss of life increased as the medically certified absence rates increased.
The proportion of men and women who had one or more medically certified absence in the three-year period (roughly 30 per cent) had a 66 per cent increased risk of premature death than those who did not.
One or more spells of absence due to psychiatric diagnosis was predictive of a 2.5-fold increase in cancer related death.
According to the researchers: "The monitoring of reasons for sickness absence could contribute to identifying groups at increased health risks and who need a targeted intervention."
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