Relationship between sickness presenteeism and awareness and presence or absence of systems for return to work among workers with mental health problems in Japan: an Internet-based cross-sectional study

Relationship between sickness presenteeism and awareness and presence or absence of systems for return to work among workers with mental health problems in Japan: an Internet-based cross-sectional study: Shotaro DOKI, et al. Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences, University of Tsukuba Objectives: The objective of this study was to clarify the relationship between sickness presenteeism and the degree of awareness of company regulations regarding financial compensation for absenteeism. Methods: An Internet-based survey of 258 full-time workers who had more than 28 days of sickness absence due to mental health problems was conducted. Workers were categorized as having either low or high sickness presenteeism, and awareness and presence or absence of systems for return to work and duration of financial compensation were compared between groups. Results: The following factors were significantly related to high sickness presenteeism based on logistic regression analyses: working for a private company (odds ratio [OR]=2.57; 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.10-5.99); recognition of a gradual resumption system (OR=3.89, 95% CI=1.02-14.81); and awareness regarding the duration of financial compensation (OR=1.04, 95% CI=1.01-1.07). Conclusions: No relationship was found between mental sickness presenteeism and presence or absence of systems for return to work in our multivariate analysis; however, a relationship was apparent between sickness presenteeism and characteristics of the workers' companies. These results are expected to contribute to research involving human resources and occupational health.