• Jeong Woo Park, Seong Sik Cho, JongWoo Lee, Jonghyun Hwang, Jung Il Kim, Byoung Gwon Kim, and Young Seoub Hong.
• Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, College of Medicine, Dong-A University, Busan, Korea.
• Ann Occup Environ Med. 2020 Jan 1; 32: e17.

BackgroundSickness presenteeism (SP) indicates "going to work while being ill." The importance of SP has only recently been investigated, and the association between SP and employment status has been inconsistent across studies. Therefore, we conducted this study to explore the association between SP and employment status by using presenteeism propensity (PP), which can reflect the individual decision-making process.MethodsThe study population included employees participating in the 5th Korean Working Condition Survey. We analyzed data of only employees with at least one health event, which was calculated as the sum of SP and sickness absenteeism days. Employment status was grouped into 3 categories: stable employment, unstable employment (contract period ≥ 1 year), and unstable employment (contract period < 1 year). Survey-weighted logistic regression analysis was conducted to assess the association between employment status and PP (dichotomized as "≤ 0.5" and "> 0.5").ResultsUnstable employees (contract period ≥ 1 year) had higher odds of PP than stable employees (odds ratio [OR]: 1.23, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.03-1.47), whereas unstable employees (contract period < 1 year) had lower odds of PP than stable employees (OR: 0.82, 95% CI: 0.71-0.96).ConclusionsEmployment status was associated with SP. Given the negative health impact of SP, social efforts, such as paid sick leave, are required to reduce SP and enhance the health status of unstable workers.Copyright © 2020 Korean Society of Occupational & Environmental Medicine.

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