UCL researchers studied the sickness records of 6500 employees in 20 Whitehall departments between 1985 and 1988 and comapred with mortality up until 2004.
Researchers found that employees who had extended periods of sick leave had 66% higher risk of early death. They were surprised to find that those who had long absence from work due to psychiatric reasons were twice as likely to die from cancer as the healthy colleagues. The study leader said " it would be useful for this information to be collected because we could identify groups with high risk of serious health problems".
Critics say the recorded reasons of sickness mat not cover the actual causes.
Source: Head J, Ferrie JE, , Alexanderson K, et al. "Diagnosis-specific sickness absence as a predictor of mortality: the Whitehall II prospective cohort study." BMJ 2008; Oct 3 [Epub ahead of print]
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