Risk factors for absenteeism due to sick leave in the petroleum industry

OBJECTIVE

To identify risk factors for absenteeism among workers with sick leave in anoil company.

METHODS

A case-control study (120 cases and 656 controls) nested in a retrospectivecohort study following up all employees of an oil company in theNorth-Northeast of Brazil from 2007 to 2009. The response variable used torepresent absenteeism with sick leave was the average incidence of sickleave, defined as the ratio between total sick days and potential workingdays in the period. Logistic regression techniques were used to investigatethe association between average incidence of sick leave > 5.0% over theperiod and the variables sex, position, age, time at work, shift work,smoking, arterial hypertension, body mass index, physical activity, coronaryrisk, sleep, glycemia, non-managed diabetes, cardiovascular, digestive,musculoskeletal, neurological and neoplastic diseases, straining bodypositioning during work, satisfaction at work, relationship with management,and concentrated attention at work.

RESULTS

Average incidence of sick leave higher than 5.0% in the cohort period was15.5%. The logistic model revealed that workers with average incidence ofsick leave higher than 5.0% were 2.6 times more likely to be female; 2.0time more likely to be smokers; 1.8 time more likely to be former smokers;2.2 times more likely to report abnormal sleep and 10.5 times more likely toreport dissatisfaction with their than workers with average incidence ofsick leave ≤ 5.0% in the period.

CONCLUSIONS

In this population, female gender, being a smoker or a former smoker,reporting dissatisfaction with the job and reporting abnormal sleep are goodpredictors of occupational absenteeism with sick leave.