Prospective associations of psychosocial work factors with sickness absence spells and duration: Results from the French national working conditions survey

Background: Some psychosocial work factors are associated with sickness absence, however little information is available on the associations of various psychosocial work factors and multiple exposures with sickness absence spells and duration, and gender differences.

Methods: Data were from the French working conditions survey conducted on a nationally representative sample of the working population. The study sample included 17,437 employees (7292 men, 10,145 women) followed from 2013 to 2016 and/or from 2016 to 2019. Occupational exposures (20 psychosocial work factors, 4 working time/hours factors, 4 physical work exposures) were measured at the beginning of each follow-up period. Hurdle and multinomial models were used to study the associations with the number of days and spells of sickness absence.

Results: Most of the psychosocial work factors predicted the risk of at least 1 day of sickness absence. Stronger associations were found among women than men for some factors. Psychosocial work factors were more likely to predict the number of spells than the number of days of sickness absence. Some physical work exposures predicted sickness absence spells and days, whereas shift work in women predicted the risk of at least 1 day of sickness absence. Dose-response associations were found between multiple psychosocial work exposures and sickness absence spells, and between multiple physical exposures and sickness absence spells and days.

Conclusion: Comprehensive prevention policies oriented toward the whole psychosocial and physical work environment should be useful to reduce sickness absence among men and women.