Factors explaining being present at work in the forest industry, case–control study

Objectives: The aim of the study was to examine factors explaining few sickness absence hours (=SAH) among forest industry employees. Methods: The source population consisted of 636 forest industry employees in Finland, of which 140 were used as cases (SAH ≤ 1.5% during the past 6.5 years). Controls (140) were randomly selected from the source population (SAH > 1.5%). The study data were collected via a questionnaire. The response rate was 65.4% (mean age 48.5 years, men 67%). Discriminant and log-linear analysis were used to examine the relationships between variables and study groups. Results: Workers are more likely to have few sickness absences when their overall subjective health condi…