Sick leave determinants in the healthcare sector (part III): a review of individual-level factors

Background: The objective of this review is to describe individual-level factors that influence and contribute to sick leave in healthcare, and especially hospital, settings. In doing so, to utilize relevant publications from the period 2004 – 2022 in order to provide a comprehensive and evidence-based resource for readers interested in effective human resource management and healthcare or hospital workforce planning. The review referred to studies on the determinants of absenteeism in the healthcare setting.

Methods: To ensure that pertinent papers (2004 – 2022) were identified, a systematic literature review was performed searching Google Scholar, Econ Lit, PubMed, ResearchGate, ScienceDirect, Emerald Insight, Scopus, Medline, PsychInfo, and Web of Science. All abstracts were screened to identify papers that empirically investigated factors at individual level that are relevant to sickness absence in a healthcare population. A total of 494 papers were initially identified. These were reduced to 123 papers using pre-determined inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Results: Individual-level factors such as age, gender, health, marital status, personality, tenure and job satisfaction have moderately strong associations with absence. There is a negative relationship between ageing, health status and absenteeism.

Conclusions: The review concludes that consideration by administrators of the impact of ageing and life phases will assist greatly in strategic workforce planning in the healthcare sector. There are marked differences in rates of absenteeism by gender, specifically by life phase that should be considered in staffing decisions.