This Article Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 1403494809350519v1 37/8/846    most recent References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Salonsalmi, A. Articles by Rahkonen, O. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Salonsalmi, A. Articles by Rahkonen, O. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Drinking habits and sickness absence: The contribution of working conditions

Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, Finland, aino.salonsalmi{at}helsinki.fi

Mikko Laaksonen

Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, Finland

Eero Lahelma

Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, Finland

Ossi Rahkonen

Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, Finland

Aims: The main aim was to examine whether drinking habits including average, binge and problem drinking are associated with self-certified and medically confirmed sickness absence among middle-aged municipal employees. Another aim was to examine whether psychosocial and physical working conditions and work arrangements explain these associations. Methods: The data on drinking habits and working conditions of 5,119 female and 1,390 male middle-aged employees of the City of Helsinki was obtained from postal questionnaires collected in 2000—2002. The data on sickness absence (2000—2005) were derived from the employer’s registers. Poisson regression analysis with self-certified (1—3 days) and medically confirmed (over 3 days) sickness absence spells as outcomes was used in performing the analyses. Results: Heavy average, binge and problem drinking were all associated with an increase in self-certified sickness absence. Both non-drinkers and heavy drinkers had excess medically confirmed sickness absence compared to moderate drinkers. Problem drinking and among women also binge drinking were associated with medically confirmed sickness absence. Psychosocial working conditions slightly attenuated the association of drinking habits and sickness absence mainly among men. Physical working conditions and work arrangements slightly explained medically confirmed sickness absence among male problem drinkers. Conclusions: All studied drinking habits were associated with both self-certified and medically confirmed sickness absence. Thus, a decrease in unhealthy drinking habits among employees is likely to prevent sickness absence. The effects of working conditions were small but psychosocial working conditions slightly explained the associations between drinking habits and sickness absence mainly among men.

Key Words: Alcohol drinking • drinking behavior • gender • sick leave • working conditions

This version was published on November 1, 2009

Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, Vol. 37, No. 8, 846-854 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1403494809350519


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?