Preventing Sickness Absence With Career Management Intervention: A Randomized Controlled Field Trial (Vol 58, Pg 1202, 2016)

This study examined whether a group intervention focusing on building up preparedness for career management can prevent future sickness absence.Register-based data on the number of sickness absence days and sickness absence episodes were examined as outcomes of the intervention among 684 employees in 17 organizations in a randomized controlled trial. Sickness absence data were collected covering a period from 1 year before (baseline) to approximately 2 years after the intervention (follow-up). The data were analyzed using zero-inflated negative binomial models.After controlling for baseline absence, age, gender, and organization, the intervention was effective in decreasing the number of longer sickness absences (lasting longer than2 weeks), but no other significant effects were found.These findings point out that it is feasible to use a career management intervention to prevent future sickness absence in work organizations.