[Work and Health. Representative work-related health monitoring with sickness absence data of the company health insurance in Germany].

The use of sickness absence data of the health insurance funds for health reporting and health research has a long tradition in Germany. The data are especially used for work-related health monitoring. Work-related health reporting describes sickness absenteeism with respect to selected occupational populations and exposures and thereby provides valuable information pointing to needs in worksite prevention and health promotion. However, despite the routine use, different standards for the keeping, selection and evaluation of data have become established. Furthermore, in Germany there are a great number of statutory health insurances which traditionally were open to certain occupations only. A nationwide work-related health reporting therefore requires methods to account for these differences and to adjust for selective memberships in health insurance institutions. The BKK health report has established a specific standardisation approach which allows analysis with respect to occupations adjusted for economic sectors and vice versa.