Centre of Expertise for Work Organizations, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Topeliuksenkatu 41 a A, FI-00250 Helsinki, Finland.
Occup Med (Lond). 2011 Oct;61(7):465-71. doi: 10.1093/occmed/kqr087. Epub 2011 Aug 23.
Although teaching is considered a high-stress profession, research on stress-related outcomes among teachers, such as absence from work due to illness (i.e. sickness absence), remains scarce. It is possible that teachers are not a homogeneous group but include subgroups with particularly high risk of sickness absence, such as special education teachers.
To examine differences in sickness absence rates between special and general education teachers in a large cohort of 2291 Finnish lower secondary school teachers.
Register data on teachers' job titles, sociodemographic characteristics and sickness absence were obtained from 10 municipal employers' registers. Indices of sickness absence included rates of short-term (1-3 days) and long-term (>3 days) absence spells during 2003-05.
With multi-level models adjusted for individual- and school-level covariates, we found that although the absolute level of sickness absence was higher among women than among men, male special education teachers were at a 1.36-fold (95% CI: 1.15-1.61) increased risk of short-term and a 1.33-fold (95% CI: 1.01-1.76) increased risk of long-term sickness absence compared with male teachers in general education. Among women, there were no differences in sickness absence between special and general education teachers.
Compared to male teachers in general education, male teachers in special education appear to have an excess risk of absence from work due to illness. Future studies should examine the causes for this excess risk and determine the need for preventive interventions.
尽管教学被认为是一种高压职业，但关于教师与压力相关的结果的研究，如因病缺勤（即病假），仍然很少。教师可能不是一个同质群体，而是包括特别高病假风险的亚组，例如特殊教育教师。
在一个由 2291 名芬兰初中教师组成的大样本中，检查特殊教育教师和普通教育教师的病假率差异。
从 10 个市政雇主登记处获取教师职称、社会人口统计学特征和病假登记数据。病假指标包括 2003-05 年短期（1-3 天）和长期（>3 天）缺勤的发生率。
在调整了个体和学校水平协变量的多水平模型中，我们发现，尽管女性的病假绝对水平高于男性，但与普通教育男性教师相比，男性特殊教育教师的短期病假风险增加 1.36 倍（95%CI：1.15-1.61），长期病假风险增加 1.33 倍（95%CI：1.01-1.76）。在女性中，特殊教育和普通教育教师之间的病假没有差异。
与普通教育男性教师相比，特殊教育男性教师因病缺勤的风险似乎更高。未来的研究应检查这种超额风险的原因，并确定是否需要进行预防干预。
