PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Eszter Török
AU  - Alice Jessie Clark
AU  - Johan Høy Jensen
AU  - Theis Lange
AU  - Jens Peter Bonde
AU  - Jakob Bue Bjorner
AU  - Reiner Rugulies
AU  - Ulla Arthur Hvidtfeldt
AU  - Åse Marie Hansen
AU  - Annette Kjær Ersbøll
AU  - Naja Hulvej Rod
TI  - Work-unit social capital and long-term sickness absence: a prospective cohort study of 32 053 hospital employees
AID  - 10.1136/oemed-2017-104954
DP  - 2018 Sep 01
TA  - Occupational and Environmental Medicine
PG  - 623--629
VI  - 75
IP  - 9
4099  - http://oem.bmj.com/content/75/9/623.short
4100  - http://oem.bmj.com/content/75/9/623.full
SO  - Occup Environ Med2018 Sep 01; 75
AB  - Objective There is a lack of studies investigating social capital at the workplace level in small and relatively homogeneous work-units. The aim of the study was to investigate whether work-unit social capital predicts a lower risk of individual long-term sickness absence among Danish hospital employees followed prospectively for 1 year.Methods This study is based on the Well-being in HospitAL Employees cohort. The study sample consisted of 32 053 individuals nested within 2182 work-units in the Capital Region of Denmark. Work-unit social capital was measured with an eight-item scale covering elements of trust, justice and collaboration between employees and leaders. Social capital at the work-unit level was computed as the aggregated mean of individual-level social capital within each work-unit. Data on long-term sickness absence were retrieved from the employers’ payroll system and were operationalised as ≥29 consecutive days of sickness absence. We used a 12-point difference in social capital as the metric in our analyses and conducted two-level hierarchical logistic regression analysis. Adjustments were made for sex, age, seniority, occupational group and part-time work at the individual level, and work-unit size, the proportion of female employees and the proportion of part-time work at the work-unit level.Results The OR for long-term sickness absence associated with a 12-point higher work-unit social capital was 0.73 (95% CI 0.68 to 0.78). Further, we found an association between higher work-unit social capital and lower long-term sickness absence across quartiles of social capital: compared with the lowest quartile, the OR for long-term sickness absence in the highest quartile was 0.51 (95% CI 0.44 to 0.60).Conclusion Our study provides support for work-unit social capital being a protective factor for individual long-term sickness absence among hospital employees in the Capital Region of Denmark.