Rapid Fire Australian Epidemiology Association ASM 2018

Work-unit social capital and long-term sickness absence: a prospective cohort study of 32 053 hospital employees (#148)

Eszter Török 1 2 , Alice Jessie Clark 1 2 , Johan Høy Jensen 1 2 3 , Theis Lange 4 , Jens Peter Bonde 1 2 3 , Jakob Bue Bjorner 1 5 , Reiner Rugulies 1 2 5 6 , Ulla Arthur Hvidtfeldt 7 , Åse Marie Hansen 1 2 5 , Annette Kjær Ersbøll 8 , Naja Hulvej Rod 1 2
  1. Department of Public Health, Copenhagen University, Copenhagen, Denmark
  2. Copenhagen Stress Research Center, Copenhagen, Denmark
  3. Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Bispebjerg Fredriksberg University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark
  4. Department of Public Health, Section of Biostatistics, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
  5. National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Copenhagen, Denmark
  6. Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
  7. Danish Cancer Society Research Center, Copenhagen, Denmark
  8. National Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark

 

Abstract

Background: Workplaces could serve as vital sources of social capital, which has the potential to affect employee health positively.

Aim: To investigate the prospective association between work-unit social capital and long-term sickness absence among hospital employees followed for 1 year.

Methods: This study is based on the Well-being in HospitAL Employees (WHALE) cohort. The study sample consisted of 32,053 individuals nested within 2,182 work-units in the Capital Region of Denmark. Work-unit social capital was measured with an eight-item scale covering trust, justice and collaboration, and it was computed as the aggregated mean of individual-level social capital. Long-term sickness absence was operationalised as ≥29 consecutive days of absence. We conducted two-level hierarchical logistic regression analyses controlling for individual and work-unit covariates. We used a 12-point difference in social capital as the metric in our analyses. Further, we calculated the population attributable fraction (PAF) to estimate the proportion of long-term sickness absence cases attributable to the exposure of low social capital.

Results: The OR for long-term sickness absence associated with a 12-point higher work-unit social capital was 0.73 (95% CI: 0.68-0.78). We found a significant association between higher work-unit social capital and lower long-term sickness absence across social capital quartiles: compared with the lowest quartile, the OR in the highest quartile was 0.51 (95% CI: 0.44-0.60). The PAF associated with being in sub-optimal quartiles of work-unit social capital was 32.9%.

Conclusions: The study provides support for work-unit social capital being a protective factor for long-term sickness absence among hospital employees.