Sick leave certification: a unique perspective on frequency and duration of episodes - a complete record of sickness certification in a defined population of employees in Malta

Table 3 Odds ratio and relative risk of manual against desk workers having one or more episode of specified reasons for sickness certification in three years, with Chi-squared (Mantel Haenszel or Fisher's exact test) and P-value.

		Injury on duty	Anxiety/depression	Sprains and strains	Low back pain	URTIs
Total	Odds Ratio (95% C.I.)	19.03 (6.81 – 73.18)	6.68 (1.52 – 60.81)	7.46 (4.63 – 12.03)	7.89 (3.23 – 23.10)	0.79 (0.47 – 1.35)
	Chi-squared (Mantel Haenszel)	53.18	8.18	83.04	27.92	0.82
	p value	< 0.001	0.004	< 0.001	< 0.001	N.S.
Male	Odds Ratio (95% C.I.)	25.47 (6.46 – 218.18)	3.97 (0.88 – 36.57)	6.54 (3.74 – 11.48)	9.84 (3.01 – 50.58)	0.91 (0.48 – 1.73)
	Chi-squared (Mantel Haenszel)	38.46	3.78	53.38	19.89	0.09
	p value	< 0.001	0.05	< 0.001	< 0.001	N.S.
Female	Odds Ratio (95% C.I.)	0.00 (0.00 – 22.55)	Undefined	4.20 (1.16 – 14.60)	3.00 (0.23 – 28.08)	0.38 (0.10 – 1.41)
	Chi-squared (Mantel Haenszel)	Fisher's exact test	Fisher's exact test	Fisher's exact test	Fisher's exact test	Fisher's exact test
	p value	N.S.	N.S.	0.021	N.S.	N.S.

Legend: Total = data for all employees calculated as one group Male/Female = data for males/females calculated separately Injury on duty = injury on duty (at workplace) Sprains and strains = muscular sprains and strains Low back pain = low back pain (excluding myalgia of the back, included in category above) Anixiety/depression = anxiety, depression, and other psychological diagnoses URTIs = upper respiratory tract infection, including colds, sinusitis, flu, but excluding otitis media and chest infections Odds ratio = odds ratio of disease in manual against desk workers Chi-squared = Chi-squared (Mantel Haenszel) or Fisher's exact test as calculated in Epi-Info, with appropriate P-value

ISSN: 2731-4553