Survey: Finns off sick most in EU
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Finns miss most work in the EU because of health problems, a new study reveals.
The report, which will be come out today in the Occupational and Environmental Medicine magazine published by the BMJ Publishing Group Ltd of the British Medical Association, compares for the first time the number of employees in different EU countries who have taken time off sick.
The study is based on research material collected in 2000. The aim was to interview 1,500 workers of the minimum age of 15 in the 15 EU member states of the time. In Finland 1,153 people were reached.
While an average of 14.5 percent of the workforce across the EU had missed at least a day of work in the previous year for accidents, work-related health problems and other ailments, Finland's rate was 24%.
Sweden and Denmark's rates were 17 and 12.4 percent respectively.
The least sick leaves were taken in Greece, where only 6.7 percent of workers informed they had been off sick the previous year.
Greece was followed by Ireland, Portugal, and Italy.
On average, 13 percent of women and 15.5 percent of men had been off sick in the EU. Finnish women, a quarter of whom had taken at least one day off, topped the list. The healthiest were Greek women with a corresponding rate of only 3.5 percent.
The researchers admit there are several possible sources of error in the study. People may have forgotten that they were on a sick leave, workers with unusual working hours may not have been reached, and neither were those who were ill.
Also the response percentage was fairly low, only 47% in Greece and 59% in Finland.
Senior researcher Mika Kivimäki from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health wonders about the results.
"What does a one-day absence describe? From the health point of view, there are definite differences between short-term and long-term sick leaves. The study fails to notice this", Kivimäki says.
"According to our study from last year, there is correlation between a sick leave longer than a week and premature death."
"Short-term sick leaves, on the other hand, speak of quite the opposite. Those who never call in sick have a higher mortality rate than those who take a sick day every once in a while."
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 16.9.2004 - TODAY |
 Survey: Finns off sick most in EU |
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