Long sickness absences have been studied widely, but there is little research data available on short sickness absences even though the impacts of short sickness absences on daily life, coping at work and expenses are significant.
Short sickness absences in different sectors
The aim of the LYHTY project was to find sector-specific reasons for short sickness absences. The results indicate that, regardless of the sector, the most common reasons for short sickness absences are the same or highly similar. In all of the six sectors included in the project, the most common reason for short sickness absences was respiratory diseases. The prevalence of respiratory diseases as the cause of short sickness absences was particularly high in early childhood education and teaching and expert work.
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Musculoskeletal and connective tissue diseases were highly prevalent in food services, the food industry and heavy and light factory work. Infections were also very common in all of the six sectors studied. It is worth noting that, in 2020, the portion of communicable and parasitic diseases as the cause of short sickness absences decreased when compared to 2017 and 2018.
When compared with all of the sectors studied, mental well-being problems were highlighted as significant reasons for short sickness absences in teaching and expert work. The results of teaching and expert work were also exceptional when compared to all of the data also in that the peak of absences in the field of education was in May.
Yearly data can also be compared to the data in 2017, 2018 and 2020. Regarding the yearly comparison, it can be said that 2020 was exceptional, especially with regard to communicable and parasitic diseases. In this year, there were fewer cases of communicable and parasitic diseases than in other years. This may be due to higher hygiene efforts, restrictions on the number of event participants and remote work.
The extensive longitudinal data from the Kokkola and Jakobstad areas in 2017–2020 were collected in the LYHTY project aimed to prevent short absences, funded by the European Social Fund and the Finnish Work Environment Fund. The data used as the basis of this analysis comprises a total of 17,088 short sickness absences in early childhood education, teaching and expert work, food services, light and heavy factory work and the food industry. The duration of the absence periods was limited to 1–10 days. The data were collected annually from the systems of occupational health organizations and companies and processed with AI-based software.
The effect of short sickness absences on the individual, work community and the company’s expenses is significant. Short sickness absences suggest the possibility of long absences, so risks identified at an early stage on the basis of absence data can provide significant indirect and direct savings. Healthy employees are committed to their job and talk about their positive work environment, which supports the recruitment of new employees as well.
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