Why do health care workers report to work when they are sick? Correlates of sick presenteeism among Chilean health system workers

Resumen

The goal of this study was to describe factors associated with "presenteeism" -- that is, the behavior of reporting to work despite being sick -- including health status, workplace psychosocial factor, workplace context, and work-family conflict. Methods. Cross-sectional study of 676 Chilean health care workers. Data was collected using 6 questionnaires: a socio-demographic questionnaire, a questionnaire on work attendance while sick (presenteeism), part of the Health Performance Questionnaire, the Job Content Questionnaire, the overcommitment scale of the Effort-Reward Imbalance Test, and a work-family conflict questionnaire. Results. 84% of participants were female (M =35.87 years); 47.9% were nurses or midwives, and 31.1% were paramedics or technicians. The overall rate of presenteeism over the past year was 86.7%. Predictive factors included (a) intention to report to work sick but ultimately remaining at home on one or more occasions in the past year (OR=5.1), (b) having been diagnosed with an illness that went untreated (OR=8.8), (c) complaints of physical symptoms (OR=1.264), (d) decision-making control at work (OR=1.041), (e) being a nurse or midwife (OR=8,108), (f) performing shift work (OR=0.116), and (g) perception of work-family conflict (OR=0.851). Conclusions. The results suggest that reporting to work sick is a common behavior, characterized by multidimensional determinants. Further study using other methods would complement these findings.