The Relationship between a Health-Promoting Lifestyle and Sickness Absence in a Healthcare Company

Abstract

Introduction  The health and wellbeing of healthcare workers is important. This study aims to determine if associations exist between the health promoting behaviour and sickness absence of people employed in a Middle-Eastern healthcare company over a 12 month period.

Method  A cross-sectional survey was sent to all employees (n=233); it measured sickness absence in spells and days and, ‘health promoting behaviour’ by use of the Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile II (HPLP II) which measured six subscales: Spiritual Growth, Interpersonal Relations, Nutrition, Physical Activity, Health Responsibility and Stress Management.

Results  The odds of high spells of sickness absence were 5 times greater in people with poor rather than good health promoting scores, after a post-hoc analysis (OR 5.3, p=0.0039, CI 1.7 to 16.6). Men had better physical activity scores than women (p<0.05). Job role was associated with sickness absence (p=0.003 for spells, 0.005 for days), with administrative staff having higher rates of sickness absence than clinical staff.

Conclusion  The results suggest that no specific health promoting behaviour was associated with sickness absence in this setting. However, the overall effect shows that higher HPLP II scores are correlated with lower sickness absence. Sickness absence may also be associated with job role.