Occup Environ Med 2000;57:656-660 ( October )

Workplace bullying and sickness absence in hospital staff

Mika Kivimäki^a, Marko Elovainio^b, Jussi Vahtera^c

^a Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki, PO Box 13, FIN 00014, University of Helsinki, Finland, ^b National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health, Helsinki, Finland, ^c Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Turku, Finland

Correspondence to: Dr Mika Kivimäki mika.kivimaki{at}occuphealth.fi

Accepted 25 May 2000

OBJECTIVESIn the past, evidence on the negative consequences of workplace bullying has been limited to cross sectional studies of self reported bullying. In this study, these consequences were examined prospectively by focusing on sickness absence in hospital staff.
METHODSThe Poisson regression analyses of medically certified spells (4 days) and self certified spells (1-3 days) of sickness absence, relating to bullying and other predictors of health, were based on a cohort of 674 male and 4981 female hospital employees aged 19-63 years. Data on sickness absence were gathered from employers' registers. Bullying and other predictors of health were measured by a questionnaire survey.
RESULTS302 (5%) of the employees reported being victims of bullying. They did not differ from the other employees in terms of sex, age, occupation, type of job contract, hours of work, income, smoking, alcohol consumption, or physical activity. Victims of bullying had higher body mass and prevalence of chronic disease, and their rates of medically and self certified spells of sickness absence were 1.5 (95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.3 to 1.7) and 1.2 (1.1 to 1.4) times higher than those of the rest of the staff. The rate ratios remained significant after adjustment for demographic data, occupational background, behaviour involving risks to health, baseline health status, and sickness absence.
CONCLUSIONWorkplace bullying is associated with an increase in the sickness absenteeism of the hospital staff. Targets of bullying seem not to belong to any distinct group with certain demographic characteristics or occupational background.


Keywords: workplace bullying; sickness absence; health; psychosocial factors; hospital staff

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© 2000 by Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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