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Minor psychiatric morbidity in employed men and women and its contribution to sickness absence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Rachel Jenkins
Rachel Jenkins*
Affiliation:
General Practice Research Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, London
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr Rachel Jenkins, General Practice Research Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AF.
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Synopsis

A pilot study is described on 41 men and women of similar age, social and educational backgrounds, in 2 working environments. The use of psychiatric interviews in such occupational settings is demonstrated to be acceptable to both management and employees. Preliminary coefficients of validity for the General Health Questionnaire are found to compare favourably with those in clinical or community settings. Though the prevalence of minor psychiatric morbidity in these small samples did not differ between the sexes, the women had twice as many spells of absence as the men. Considering women separately, minor psychiatric morbidity was found to be significantly correlated with absence. However, psychiatric illness was a less important predictor of absence in men.

Type
Preliminary Communication
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 10 , Issue 4 , November 1980 , pp. 751 - 757
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

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