Work in brief
SICKNESS ABSENCE AND THE YOUNGER WORKER
Figure 1
Sickness absence (non-attendance at work attributed to health complaints) is a complex phenomenon, influenced by many factorsdemographic, socio-economic and related to work organisation and attitudes to work. Taimela et al have investigated the relation between self-reported health problems and sickness absence at differing ages in a cohort of Finnish workers in physical jobs.1 Self-rated health and self-rated workability were associated with total duration of absence regardless of age, sex and occupational grade. Frequency of self-reported health problems rose as expected with age. However, a higher proportion of 1830 year olds had …
