Poor psychosocial job conditions increase sickness absence: Evidence from the PATH Through Life Mid-Aged Cohort

Abstract

Objectives Evidence is mounting that poor psychosocial job conditions increase sickness absence, but there is a need for further rigorous prospective research to isolate the influence of psychosocial job quality from other measured and unmeasured confounders. This study used four waves of prospective longitudinal data (spanning 12 years) to investigate the extent to which increases in poor psychosocial job quality are associated with greater relative risk of day of sickness absence. Design Prospective cohort study. Setting Data were from the Australian PATH Through Life cohort study. The analyses adopted hybrid-regression estimations that isolated the effect of within-person change in psycho..