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Relative Deprivation and Sickness Absence in Sweden

På svenska

Author

Summary, in English

Background: A high prevalence of sickness absence in many countries, at a substantial societal cost, underlines the importance to understand its determining mechanisms. This study focuses on the link between relative deprivation and the probability of sickness absence. Methods: 184,000 men and women in Sweden were followed between 1982 and 2001. The sample consists of working individuals between the ages of 19 and 65. The outcome is defined as experiencing more than 14 days of sickness absence during a year. Based on the complete Swedish population, an individual’s degree of relative deprivation is measured through income compared to individuals of the same age, sex, educational level and type. In accounting for the possibility that sickness absence and socioeconomic status are determined by common factors, discrete-time duration models were estimated, accounting for unobserved heterogeneity through random effects. Results: The results confirm that the failure to account for the dynamics of the individual’s career biases the influence from socioeconomic characteristics. Results consistently suggest a major influence from relative deprivation, with a consistently lower risk of sickness absence among the highly educated. Conclusions: Altering individual’s health behavior through education appears more efficient in reducing the reliance on sickness absence, rather than redistributive policies.

Publishing year

2013

Language

English

Pages

3930-3953

Publication/Series

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Volume

10

Issue

9

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

MDPI AG

Topic

  • Environmental Health and Occupational Health

Keywords

  • duration analysis
  • sickness absence
  • Sweden
  • relative deprivation

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1660-4601