A Prospective Cohort Study of Presenteeism and Increased Risk of Divorce Among Japanese Workers. Issue 11 (16th November 2022) - Fujino, Yoshihisa
Abstract : The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting families and marital relationships. Couples with preexisting vulnerabilities are particularly negatively affected by external events such as natural disasters and public health crises. Economic conditions and the employment environment have been severely damaged by the COVID-19 pandemic. Workers who continue to work while coping with health problems are more likely to experience health and employment disadvantages, which may have a detrimental impact on family and marital relationships. This prospective cohort study showed that workers with work functioning impairments are at higher risk of divorce. This suggests that support for workers with health problems needs to be discussed more extensively not only from the perspective of productivity management in companies but also from a public health perspective, including social security. Abstract : Objective: We examined the association between the presenteeism and the risk of divorce among Japanese workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A prospective study of 27, 036 individuals was conducted starting in December 2020, with 18, 560 (68.7%) participating in the follow-up in December 2021. The Work Functioning Impairment Scale (WFun) was used to measure the degree of work function impairment. Results: Compared with the group with the lowest WFun score, the odds ratio for the group with moderate WFun was 1.16 (95% confidence interval, 0.74 to 1.82; P = 0.525), and the odds ratio for the group with the highest WFun was 1.76 (95% confidence interval, 1.18 to 2.62; P = 0.006). Conclusions: This study suggests that supporting workers with presenteeism has important implications not only from the perspective of labor productivity in management but also for the individual's quality of life in terms of family relationships.