Comparison of sick leave patterns between Norway and Denmark in the health and care sector: A register study

Abstract

Aims: Sickness absence is of considerable concern in both Norway and Denmark. Labour Force Surveys indicate that absence in Norway is about twice that in Denmark and twice that of the mean reported by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. This study compares absence patterns according to age, percentage of employment, and occupation between municipal employees in the health and care sectors in two municipalities in Norway and Denmark. Methods: Data recorded in the personnel registers of the municipalities of Kristiansand, Norway and Aarhus, Denmark were extracted for the years 2004 and 2008, revealing 3498 and 7751 employee-years, respectively. We calculated absence rates together with number of sick leave episodes, and their association with the above-mentioned covariates. Gender-specific comparative descriptive statistics and negative binomial regression analysis were performed. Results: The sickness absence rate in women was 11.3% in Norway (95% confidence interval [CI] 11.2–11.4) and 7.0% in Denmark (95% CI 7.0–7.1) whereas mean number of sick leave episodes among women was 2.4 in Denmark, compared to 2.3 in Norway (p = 0.02). Young employees in Denmark had more sick leave episodes than in Norway. Proportion of absentees was higher in Denmark compared to Norway (p < 0.0001). Conclusions: The finding of that more employees in Denmark have more frequent, but shorter sick leave episodes compared to Norway, for whatever reasons, may indicate that more frequent sick leaves episodes prevent higher sick leaves rates.

Keywords

Comparative study Denmark health and care units Norway sick leave

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Lund

Labriola

Sickness absence in Denmark – research, results, and reflections. Scandinavian Journal of Work Environment and Health Supplements 2009;7:5–14.

Gjesdal

Sickness absence incidence in Norway 1975–2002 [in Norwegian]. Tidsskr Nor Laegeforen 2005;125:742–5.

Ose

Knowledge of sickness absence: New Norwegian contributions [in Norwegian]. Trondheim: Sintef Helse 2010.

Gimeno

Benavides

Benach

. Distribution of sickness absence in the European Union countries. Occup Environ Med 2004;61:867–9.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Sickness, disability and work: breaking the barriers. Vol. 3: Denmark, Finland, Ireland and the Netherlands. Paris: OECD, 2008.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Economic policy reforms: going for growth 2009. Paris: OECD, 2009.

Brage

Trends in the Scandinavian sick leave schemes [in Norwegian]. Arbeid og velferd 2007;2:24–9.

Barmby

Ercolani

Treble

JG.

Sickness absence: An international comparison. The Economic Journal 2002;112:F315–31.

Livanos

Zangelidis

Sickness absence: a pan-European study. Munich: Munich Personal RePEc Archive 2010, http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/ (accessed July 2012).

10.

Fleten

Johnsen

Project self-certification Kristiansand municipality [in Norwegian]. Trondheim: Department of Community Medicine, University of Tromsoe/Department of Public health and General Practice, University of Trondheim, 2005.

11.

Tveito

Halvorsen

Lauvålien

. Room for everyone in working life? 10% of the employees – 82% of the sickness leave. Norsk Epidemiologi 2002;12:63–8.

12.

Brage

Krohg

Klockars

. Social insurance schemes in Nordic countries [in Norwegian]. Tidsskr Nor Laegeforen 2002;122:1486–91.

13.

Statistics Denmark. “Absence by education, cause of absence, absence indicator, sex, sector and time” for the years 2003-2008. “Unemployed in per cent of the labour force by region, sex, age and time” for the years 2003-2008. Online referencing, http://statistikbanken.dk/FRA02 (accessed March 2012).

14.

Statistics Norway. “Sickness absence rate for employees (percent), by sex and age (percent)” for the years 2003-2008. “Unemployed aged 15-74 years, by sex and age” for the years 2003-2008. Online referencing, http://statbank.ssb.no/statistikkbanken (accessed March 2012).

15.

Leino-Arjas

Piha

. On methodologies for analysing sickness absence data: An insight into a new method. World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology 2008;17:422–427.

16.

Becker

The Scandinavian model: Still an example for Europe? In: Agarwal

Srinivasan

(eds), Economic development strategies: concepts and experiences. Hyderabad: Icfai University Press, 2009.

17.

Blekesaune

Job insecurity and sickness absence: Correlation between attrition and absence in 36 occupational groups. Scand J Publ Health 2012;40:668–673.

18.

Fleten

Johnsen

Førde

OH.

Length of sick leave – Why not ask the sick-listed? Sick-listed individuals predict their length of sick leave more accurately than professionals. BMC Publ Health 2004;4:46.

19.

Elstad

Vabø

Job stress, sickness absence and sickness presenteeism in Nordic elderly care. Scand J Publ Health 2008;36:467–74.

20.

Ihlebaek

Brage

Eriksen

HR.

Health complaints and sickness absence in Norway, 1996–2003. Occup Med (London) 2007;57:43–9.

21.

Nossen

JP.

Sickness absence and the economic cycle: A review [in Norwegian]. Norsk Epidemiologi 2009;19:115–25.

22.

Lund

Bang Christensen

Vaez

. Differences in sickness absence in Sweden and Denmark: The cross national HAKNAK study. Eur J Publ Health 2008;19:343–9.

23.

Hensing

Alexanderson

Allebeck

. How to measure sickness absence? Literature review and suggestion of five basic measures. Scand J Soc Med 1998;26:133–44.

24.

Lie

SA.

Sick leave, graded sick leave and the course back to work [in Norwegian]. Bergen: Uni Helse, 2010.

25.

Markussen

Mykletun

Røed

. The case for presenteeism. Discussion Paper No. 5343. Bonn: Institute for the Study of Labor, 2010.

26.

Norges Offentlige Utredninger. Working for health. Sickness absence and exclusion in the health care sector [in Norwegian]. Oslo: Ministry of Health and Care Services, 2010.

27.

Kostøl

Telle

Its about the women [in Norwegian]. Samfunnsøkonomen 2011;1:4–14.

28.

Sörlin

Öhman

Lindholm

Sickness absence in gender-equal companies. A register study at organizational level. BMC Publ Health 2011;11:548.

29.

Clausen

Nielsen

Goes Carneiro

. Job demands, job resources and long-term sickness absence in the Danish eldercare services: A prospective analysis of register-based outcomes. J Adv Nurs 2011;68:127–36.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.13 MB