Four or more health risk factors double risk of absenteeism
The impact of behavioral health risks on worker absenteeism. Serzner SA, Gold DB, Bultman KK. J Occup Environ Med. 2001. 43: 347-354.
Aim
To examine the relationship between health risk status and the likelihood of absence from work.
Looked at
35,451 employees from 28 private and public sector organizations in the US.
How?
- Employees were divided into two categories: i) high absenteeism (two or more days absent in the previous year) and ii) low-absenteeism (one or fewer days absent in the previous year).
- Each employee completed a health risk appraisal, which generated data on 10 risk areas: alcohol use, back care, driving, eating, exercise and activity, mental health, self-care, smoking, stress, and weight.
Results
- Higher absenteeism related to high-risk status in eight out of 10 health risk areas.
- The health risks with the greatest impact upon absenteeism were i) mental health (47% greater chance of high absence compared with low risk status), ii) poor back care (40%), iii) stress (24%), and iv) overweight (23%).
- Individuals with four or more health risk factors were nearly twice as likely to be in the high-absenteeism group than those with three or fewer factors.
What does this mean?
Behavioral health can place employees at high risk for absence from work.