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Do psychosocial working conditions modify the effect of depressive symptoms on long‐term sickness absence?
Author(s) -
Hjarsbech Pernille U.,
Christensen Karl Bang,
Andersen Rikke Voss,
Borg Vilhelm,
Aust Birgit,
Rugulies Reiner
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
american journal of industrial medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.7
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1097-0274
pISSN - 0271-3586
DOI - 10.1002/ajim.22230
Subject(s) - psychosocial , medicine , depressive symptoms , poisson regression , job strain , sick leave , psychiatry , clinical psychology , gerontology , physical therapy , cognition , environmental health , population
Background The objective of this study was to investigate whether work unit‐levels of psychosocial working conditions modify the effect of depressive symptoms on risk of long‐term sickness absence (LTSA). Methods A total of 5,416 Danish female eldercare workers from 309 work units were surveyed using questionnaires assessing depressive symptoms and psychosocial working conditions. LTSA was derived from a national register. We aggregated scores of psychosocial working conditions to the work unit‐level and conducted multi‐level Poisson regression analyses. Results Depressive symptoms, but not psychosocial working conditions, predicted LTSA. Psychosocial working conditions did not statistically significantly modify the effect of depressive symptoms on LTSA. Conclusions Psychosocial working conditions did not modify the effect of depressive symptoms on LTSA. The results, however, need to be interpreted with caution, as we cannot rule out lack of exposure contrast and non‐differential misclassification of the exposure. Am. J. Ind. Med. 56:1329–1340, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.