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Abstract: To examine relationships between health risk factors and sick leave usage, a retrospective design was used for analysis of a sample of university employees. Binary logistic regression identified variables characteristic of high sick leave usage compared to low. Predictive factors identified were." perceived stress, food choices, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, tobacco use, and cancer for females; and body mass index, physical activity, perceived stress, social support, and heart disease for males. While health risks were found to be related to amount of sick leave used, the analysis suggests that additional factors impact high rates of sick leave usage.

The causes of employee absenteeism are multiple and complex. In efforts to both understand and impact absenteeism, researchers and practitioners have focused attention on modifiable risk factors associated with employee illness expecting that changes in these risk factors would result in corresponding changes in absenteeism. Recent reviews suggest that health risks are associated with absenteeism (Aldana, 2001; Reidel, Lynch, Baase, Hymel, & Peterson, 2001). Aldana (2001) concludes that obesity, stress, and the presence of multiple risk factors are associated with increased rates of absenteeism. Aldana (2001) also indicates that the association between absenteeism and other health risks and behaviors such as seat belt use, cholesterol, physical activity, hypertension or alcohol abuse remains unclear. However, the body of literature upon which these conclusions are based is small. Additionally, few of the studies included in his review assess differences in extremely high and low rates of absenteeism. This is important since the vast majority of direct and indirect costs associated with poor health are attributable to 10-15% of a given population (Yen, Edington, & Witting, 1992).

Individual studies have identified a significant association between rates of absenteeism and obesity (Burton, Chen, Schultz, & Edington, 1998; Narbro et al., 1998; Thompson, Edelsberg, Kinsey, & Oster, 1998; Tucker & Friedman, 1998), tobacco use (Bertera, 1991), diabetes (Burton, Conti, Chen, Schultz, & Edington, 1999), seat belt use (Burton et al., 1999), physical inactivity (Steinhardt, Greenhow, & Stewart, 1991) and stress (Jacobson et al., 1996; Jamal, 1984; Neubauer, 1992; Tang & Hammontree, 1992; Woo, Yap, Oh, & Long, 1999). Additionally, hypertension has been associated with absenteeism (Burton et al., 1999), but this association does not appear to be consistent (Leigh, 1990). Finally, it has been suggested that one of the best predictors of absenteeism is past absenteeism (Yen et al., 1992) suggesting that absenteeism may be either related to chronic illness or simply be habitual.

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