Presenteeism, Psychosocial Working Conditions and Work Ability among Care Workers—A Cross-Sectional Swedish Population-Based Study

Klas Gustafsson, Staffan Marklund, Constanze Leineweber, Gunnar Bergström, Emmanuel Aboagye and Magnus Helgesson
Additional contact information
Klas Gustafsson: Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Division of Insurance Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, SE-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden
Staffan Marklund: Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Division of Insurance Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, SE-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden
Constanze Leineweber: Stress Research Institute, Stockholm University, SE-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden
Gunnar Bergström: Department of Occupational Health Sciences and Psychology, Faculty of Health and Occupational Studies, Centre for Musculoskeletal Research, University of Gävle, SE-801 76 Gävle, Sweden
Emmanuel Aboagye: Department of Occupational Health Sciences and Psychology, Faculty of Health and Occupational Studies, Centre for Musculoskeletal Research, University of Gävle, SE-801 76 Gävle, Sweden
Magnus Helgesson: Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Division of Insurance Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, SE-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 7, 1-12

Abstract: Presenteeism, attending work while ill, has been examined in different contexts in the last few decades. The aim was to examine whether poor psychosocial working conditions and perceived work ability are associated with increased odds ratios for presenteeism, focusing on nursing professionals and care assistants. A cross-sectional population-based study was conducted. The selected individuals were extracted from representative samples of employees, aged 16–64, who participated in the Swedish Work Environment Surveys between 2001 and 2013 ( n = 45,098). Three dimensions of psychosocial working conditions were measured: job demands, job control, and job support. Presenteeism and perceived work ability was measured. Using multiple logistic regression analyses, odds ratios for presenteeism with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated. While nurses ( n = 1716) showed the same presenteeism level as all the other occupation groups ( n = 37,125), it was more common among care assistants ( n = 6257). The odds ratio for presenteeism among those with high job demands (OR = 2.37, 95% CI 2.21–2.53), were higher among women than among men. For nursing professionals and care assistants, the odds ratios for presenteeism were highest among those with the lowest work ability level. The problems of presenteeism and low work ability among many health and care workers may be lessened by a reduction in psychosocial demands.

Keywords: presenteeism; psychosocial working conditions; nurses; care workers; health; work ability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/7/2419/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/7/2419/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:7:p:2419-:d:340530

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().