Prevalence of Sickness Absence and Its Sociodemographic and Occupational Factors in a Public Service Organization
Abstract
Sickness absence in any particular organization has negative impacts mainly toward economic, morale and productivity. The purpose of this survey is to determine the prevalence of sickness absence among employees in a government office in a central region of Malaysia to get profiling of the employees taking medical leaves, to
compare the frequency of sickness absence among the employees based on gender, age group and designation and to determine the perception of sickness absence among the employees in relation to their occupation. A cross-sectional study was carried out among 587 workers in the first half of 2017. Data was collected based on Sickness Absence Surveillance form, which was filled by any employee who took medical leave. Other variables such as demographic data, work characteristics and personal health were also included. Subsequently, data entry and analysis were done using SPSS Version 22.0. The overall prevalence rate was 63.0 percent (female = 42.6%, male 20.3%) that includes repeated medical certificate (MC)-taker. Reasons for sickness absence are varied like fever, URTI, pregnancy related, injury, diarrhea, clinic follow-up and many more. Results also showed that sickness absenteeism was higher among female, mainly middle managerial level, presently or previously married, aged from 30 to 39, employed in the organization for over 10 years with no background of chronic medical illness. Therefore, the prevalence of sickness absence among employees in a government office in a central region of Malaysia and factors associated with it are determined. It is recommended for continuation of surveillance simultaneously to have an intervention program in order to find the root cause of sickness absence and thus reducing sickness absence rate.
Keywords: sickness absenteeism, surveillance, sociodemographic factors, occupational factors
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