Factors Associated with Sickness Absence in a Large Healthcare Organization

Understanding drivers of absenteeism is very important for employers and their people focused on promoting and protecting workplace health. In this large UK based study, published in the Oxford Academic Occupational Medicine Journal, the researchers uncovered some interesting data in healthcare workers. In over 9362 staff, cost centre sickness absence was significantly positively associated with predominance of nursing and midwifery staff and significantly inversely associated with predominance of medical and dental staff. Cost centre sickness absence was not significantly associated with staff engagement, reported abuse, age or higher headcount. Reported abuse by colleagues was significantly associated with predominance of medical and dental and nursing and midwifery staff. The researchers concluded that the observed associations of sickness absence, staff engagement and perceived abuse with job mix and ethnicity should be further explored. Individual or team-level data, rather than cost centre-level data, might more meaningfully elucidate why sickness absence rates vary between groups of staff. Individual level data are quite useful, and practical to use from a data analytics perspective.