Do work-related factors contribute to differences in doctor-certified sick leave? A prospective study comparing women in health and social occupations with women in the general working population

Table 2 Descriptions of sick leave and explanatory variables for women in health and social occupations (n = 661) and women in the general working population (n = 2371)

		Health and social occupations		General working population
	Range	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	p-value^a
Outcome variable
Long-term sick leave (LTSL)	0–1	0.24	0.43	0.18	0.38	0.001
Age	18–69	44.51	10.82	43.65	11.33	0.081
Working hours/week	0–90	33.05	8.46	37.06	7.53	0.001
Educational level	1–5	3.31	0.93	3.24	1.2	0.151
Previous LTSL	0–1	0.23	0.42	0.16	0.36	0.001
Psychosocial factors
Violence and threats of violence	0–1	0.25	0.43	0.05	0.22	0.001
Emotional demands	1–4	3.26	0.87	2.41	0.94	0.001
Role conflict	1–5	2.23	0.84	2.07	0.83	0.001
Supportive leadership	1–5	2.07	0.96	1.92	0.88	0.001
Job demand	1–5	3.74	0.96	3.75	0.9	0.981
Job control	1–5	2.85	0.7	2.59	0.8	0.001
Bullying	0–1	0.29	0.17	0.28	0.16	0.917
Possibilities of development	1–5	1.88	0.58	1.78	0.6	0.001
Mechanical factors
Neck flexion	1–4	1.51	0.85	1.4	0.86	0.001
Hand/arm repetition	1–4	1.69	1.06	2.17	1.32	0.001
Hands above shoulder	1–4	1.15	0.52	1.19	0.59	0.142
Squatting/kneeling	1–4	1.31	0.63	1.19	0.58	0.001
Standing	1–4	2.79	1.22	2.1	1.28	0.001
Upper body bent forward	1–4	1.37	0.72	1.14	0.52	0.001
Awkward lifting	1–4	1.35	0.67	1.14	0.5	0.001
Heavy lifting	1–4	1.55	0.85	1.13	0.47	0.001

For categorical variables (range 0–1), the mean score equals the proportion of respondents registered with a value of 1 (i.e., the percentage of respondents who were exposed)
^aContinuous variables were tested with t-tests and chi-square tests were used for categorical variables

ISSN: 1471-2458