Job strain and long-term sickness absence from work - a ten-year prospective study in German working population

Abstract

Objective: To examine the prospective associations between baseline job strain and ten-year cumulative incidence of long term sickness absence (LTSA) in the German workforce. Methods: This study used longitudinal data from the 2001-2010 waves of The German Socio Economic Panel (SOEP) (n = 9794). Kaplan-Meier survival curves and Cox proportional hazard regression models were used to examine the prospective association between job strain and incidence of LTSA. Results: High strain (HR=1.28, 95%CI=1.12-1.46) and passive jobs (HR= 1.14, 95%CI=1.01-1.30) were significantly associated with LTSA after full adjustment for covariates, with greater risk in the older participants (>45) in passive (HR=1.33, 95%CI= 1.08-1.63) and high strain (HR=1.56, 95%CI=1.24-1.92) jobs. Conclusions: Jobs with low control over work were associated with LTSA in German workers. More studies using longitudinal employment data, and more detailed job strain measures is warranted.