Sickness absence: A gender-focused review

Abstract

Women compared with men are generally considered to have higher sickness absence rates. Also determinants of sickness absent may differ between the sexes, a relevant area of knowledge for organizations that want to fine-tune particular measures to particular determinants. The present article offers a review of the literature regarding the relationships between sickness absence and gender. Various explanations mentioned in the literature are discussed using a classification derived from the Multi-Facet Gender and Health Model. Women compared to men seem indeed more frequently absent at work but this depends on countries, age – and professional groups, and seems restricted to short-term absence. Main conclusions with respect to future research concern the desirability of context-sensitive research and the usefulness of short-term versus long-term absenteeism as an outcome variable. Additionally, we recommend to further investigate the effects of organizational and psychosocial gender-related work characteristics, gender-bias in diagnostics and treatment, as well as gender differences in specific person-related factors interacting with gender differences in work-related daily life factors.

Keywords:

• gender
• sickness absence
• sex differences
• burnout
• multiple roles

Notes

1. For instance, Mastekaa (2000) based on data from the National Insurance Administration (1998) in Norway reported that the number of sick leave days compensated under the Norwegian health insurance system per employee per year is 1.65 as high for women as for men. Also, in international studies on, respectively, 10 European countries and the US (Bliksvår & Helliesen, 1997) and 8 European countries and Canada (Barmby, Ercolani, & Treble, 2000) higher rates of female sickness absence were found except in Luxembourg and Spain where, interestingly, women had the lowest employment rates of the countries under study as well.