Relative Deprivation and Sickness Absence in Sweden

Jonas Helgertz, Wolfgang Hess and Kirk Scott
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Jonas Helgertz: Department of Economic History and Centre for Economic Demography, Lund University, P.O. Box 7083, Lund 22007, Sweden
Wolfgang Hess: Department of Economics and Centre for Economic Demography, Lund University, P.O. Box 7082, Lund 22007, Sweden
Kirk Scott: Department of Economic History and Centre for Economic Demography, Lund University, P.O. Box 7083, Lund 22007, Sweden

IJERPH, 2013, vol. 10, issue 9, 1-24

Abstract: Background: A high prevalence of sickness absence in many countries, at a substantial societal cost, underlines the importance to understand its determining mechanisms. This study focuses on the link between relative deprivation and the probability of sickness absence. Methods: 184,000 men and women in Sweden were followed between 1982 and 2001. The sample consists of working individuals between the ages of 19 and 65. The outcome is defined as experiencing more than 14 days of sickness absence during a year. Based on the complete Swedish population, an individual’s degree of relative deprivation is measured through income compared to individuals of the same age, sex, educational level and type. In accounting for the possibility that sickness absence and socioeconomic status are determined by common factors, discrete-time duration models were estimated, accounting for unobserved heterogeneity through random effects. Results: The results confirm that the failure to account for the dynamics of the individual’s career biases the influence from socioeconomic characteristics. Results consistently suggest a major influence from relative deprivation, with a consistently lower risk of sickness absence among the highly educated. Conclusions: Altering individual’s health behavior through education appears more efficient in reducing the reliance on sickness absence, rather than redistributive policies.

Keywords: sickness absence; Sweden; relative deprivation; duration analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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