Farrants Kristin, Müller Mira, Alexanderson Kristina
Division of Insurance Medicine, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, SE-171 77, Sweden.
BMC Public Health. 2025 Feb 10;25(1):548. doi: 10.1186/s12889-025-21566-1.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought with it several changes, both regarding infection with COVID-19 itself as well as measures to combat the spread of infection, that might have affected sickness absence (SA) patterns. The aim was to explore whether incidence and length of SA changed between 2019, 2020, and 2021, as well as to determine factors associated with SA due to COVID-19 or COVID-like diagnoses among privately employed white-collar workers.
A cohort of all privately employed white-collar workers in 2018 in Sweden (n = 1 347 778; 47% women) was followed prospectively during 2019, 2020, and 2021 using linked nationwide register data. We calculated numbers and proportions of people with incident SA (in SA spells > 14 days) due to COVID-19, COVID-like diagnoses (certain respiratory, infectious, and symptom-based diagnoses used in the beginning of the pandemic for suspected COVID-19), and all other SA, respectively, and mean number of SA days with somatic and mental diagnoses. Logistic regression was used to determine odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals for associations between prior diagnosis-specific SA, sociodemographic and work-related factors and incident SA due to COVID-19 or COVID-like diagnoses.
In 2020, 0.6% of the women and 0.3% of the men had incident SA due to COVID-19. For SA with COVID-like diagnoses, the corresponding proportions were 1.2% and 0.5%. The proportion of people with all other SA was stable across the years, at 8.1-8.4% for women and 3.7-3.9% for men. The mean number of SA days per person increased each year for somatic diagnoses but for mental diagnoses it decreased from 2019 to 2020 and increased to 2021 among women and men. Factors associated most strongly with incident SA due to COVID-19 or COVID-like diagnoses were low income (adjusted OR-range 1.36-5.67 compared to the highest income group) and prior SA due to COVID-like diagnoses (OR-range 4.67-5.31 compared to those with no such prior SA).
A small proportion of privately-employed white-collar workers had incident SA spells > 14 days due to COVID-19 or COVID-like diagnoses. The factors associated with SA due to COVID-19 were similar to factors associated with SA due to other diagnoses in previous studies.
新冠疫情带来了诸多变化，涉及新冠病毒感染本身以及防控感染传播的措施，这些变化可能影响了病假模式。目的是探究2019年、2020年和2021年期间病假的发生率和时长是否发生了变化，同时确定在私营企业工作的白领因新冠病毒感染或类似新冠诊断而请病假的相关因素。
利用全国性关联登记数据，对2018年瑞典所有私营企业白领（n = 1347778；47%为女性）进行前瞻性随访，随访时间为2019年、2020年和2021年。我们分别计算了因新冠病毒感染、类似新冠诊断（疫情初期用于疑似新冠病毒感染的某些呼吸道、感染性和基于症状的诊断）以及所有其他病假而出现新发病假（病假时长>14天）的人数和比例，以及伴有躯体和精神诊断的病假天数均值。采用逻辑回归分析来确定特定诊断的既往病假、社会人口学和工作相关因素与因新冠病毒感染或类似新冠诊断而出现的新发病假之间的关联的比值比（OR）和95%置信区间。
2020年，0.6%的女性和0.3%的男性因新冠病毒感染出现新发病假。对于类似新冠诊断的病假，相应比例分别为1.2%和0.5%。多年来，所有其他病假的比例保持稳定，女性为8.1 - 8.4%，男性为3.7 - 3.9%。每人的病假天数均值每年因躯体诊断而增加，但因精神诊断，女性和男性从2019年到2020年有所下降，到2021年又有所增加。与因新冠病毒感染或类似新冠诊断而出现的新发病假关联最密切的因素是低收入（与最高收入组相比，调整后的OR范围为1.36 - 5.67）以及既往因类似新冠诊断而请的病假（与无此类既往病假者相比，OR范围为4.67 - 5.31）。
一小部分私营企业白领因新冠病毒感染或类似新冠诊断而出现了时长>14天的新发病假。与因新冠病毒感染而请病假相关的因素与先前研究中因其他诊断而请病假的相关因素相似。
