Sickness absenteeism from work remains a major public health challenge with economic consequences for societies, employers and workers in terms of sickness benefit payments, loss of productivity, loss of income and potential loss of paid employment.
Long-term sickness absence (LTSA) is especially problematic, accounting for up to 3/4 of total absenteeism costs, although it constitutes only a third of all lost work days.
In occupational research and practice, efforts to protect worker health have generally focused on reducing risk factors in the work environment, for example, ergonomic and psychosocial risk factors. In contrast, public health recommendations have largely focused on improving lifestyle, for example by increasing physical activity and reducing sedentary behavior.
However, over the past two decades, none of these divergent efforts have been successful in reducing sickness absence at the population level. Over recent years, occupational practice has integrated methods traditionally rooted in the public health domain, for example workplace health promotion in an attempt to prevent musculoskeletal disorders and sickness absence.
While this may not be without challenges and is far from widespread, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating the effect of workplace health promotion have provided promising results in terms of the somatic and mental health of employees. workers.
For example, some workplace interventions have used microexercise, that is, simple, brief strengthening exercises designed to strengthen the primary muscles used during work. After this, micro-exercises with elastic resistance bands can be performed together with colleagues at the local workstation; usually for 10 minutes three times a week without having to change clothes, go to the gym or shower afterwards. Microexercises can also be performed without exercise equipment (for example, back exercises).
This study evaluates the potential of workplace microexercise to prevent LTSA. The study uses data representative of the general working population in Denmark, without prior LTSA, combined with high-quality national registries (used for follow-up).
Summary This study evaluates the potential of workplace microexercise (short, simple exercise sessions) to prevent long-term sickness absence (LTSA) at a population level. In the Danish Work Environment and Health Study (2012-2018), we followed 70,130 workers from the general labor force, without previous LTSA, for two years in the Danish Registry for the assessment of marginalization. From 2012 to 2018, the percentage of workers in Denmark performing microexercises in the workplace during and outside of working hours increased from 7.1 to 10.9% and 0.8 to 1.4%, respectively. The incidence of long-term sickness absence (at least 30 days) was 8.4% during follow-up. The fully adjusted model showed a reduced risk of long-term sickness absence for using microexercise during working hours (HR 0.86, 95% CI 0.77–0.96), but not when used outside of working hours. If used by all workers, microexercise during work hours could potentially prevent 12.8% of incident cases of long-term sickness absence (population-attributable fraction). In conclusion , microexercise performed during working hours has some potential to prevent incidents of long-term sickness absence in the general workforce. Large-scale implementation of microexercises in the workplace may represent an untapped opportunity for public health promotion. |
Discussion
The present study shows that microexercise performed during work hours has some potential to prevent LTSA in the general working population. Importantly, microexercise use did not interact with age, sex, and education on LTSA risk, indicating potential for LTSA prevention across the general working population .
Although the percentage of workers in Denmark who were offered and used microexercise increased from 2012 to 2018, both its offer and use remains quite limited at the population level, emphasizing that there is potential untapped potential, especially among men and workers with little or no education.
Conclusion
In conclusion, performing microexercise during working hours has some potential to prevent incidents of long-term sickness absence in the general workforce. Although the use of such exercises has increased from 2012 to 2018, a potential opportunity for public health promotion in the workplace remains untapped.
