Perceived work ability of recipients of sickness allowance: a retrospective registry-linkage study from the Healthy Finland survey.

Abstract

Aims: To explore perceived work ability after sickness absences of varying durations.

Methods: Questionnaire data from the Healthy Finland survey in 2022-2023, which included self-rated work ability (SRWA), were linked with registry data of the Social Insurance Institution of Finland on sickness allowance for the period 2021-2022. The association between the number of disability days on sickness allowance over a period of 2 years and SRWA were analysed among sickness allowance recipients (N = 2398) by cross-tabulation and multinomial logistic regression taking potential confounding factors into account.

Results: The number of days on sickness allowance (p < .001) was associated with subsequent perceived work inability: the probability of perceived work inability increased with more sickness allowance days. Among individuals who received sickness allowance for more than 300 days over 2 years, the relative risk ratio was 174.5 for perceived work inability and 13.6 for perceived partial work inability, compared with those who received sickness allowance for 1-30 days. Nonetheless, only 44% of those with over 300 sickness allowance days perceived themselves to be completely unable to work. Individuals who did not believe they could work until normal retirement age were more likely to perceive themselves as completely or partially unable to work.

Conclusions: Perceived partial work inability is common after receiving sickness allowance, but only a minority of recipients perceive themselves to be completely unable to work even after a high number of sickness allowance days. Utilising the remaining work capacity is key to enabling a successful return to the labour market and supporting longer working careers.