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Unwanted sexual attention at work and long-term sickness absence: a follow-up register-based study
BACKGROUND: The current understanding of the relationship between unwanted sexual attention at work and long-term sickness absence (LTSA) is limited for three reasons: 1) the under-researched role of unwanted sexual attention perpetrated by individuals outside the work organization; 2) a widespread...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2016
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4967501/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27475538 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-016-3336-y |
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author | Hogh, Annie Conway, Paul Maurice Clausen, Thomas Madsen, Ida Elisabeth Huitfeldt Burr, Hermann |
author_facet | Hogh, Annie Conway, Paul Maurice Clausen, Thomas Madsen, Ida Elisabeth Huitfeldt Burr, Hermann |
author_sort | Hogh, Annie |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: The current understanding of the relationship between unwanted sexual attention at work and long-term sickness absence (LTSA) is limited for three reasons: 1) the under-researched role of unwanted sexual attention perpetrated by individuals outside the work organization; 2) a widespread use of self-reported measures of sickness absence, with an unclear identification of sickness absence episodes of long duration; 3) the cross-sectional design of most existing studies. The aim of this study was therefore to investigate the relationship between self-reported unwanted sexual attention at work and subsequent LTSA (≥3 weeks), stratifying by gender and source of exposure (i.e., colleagues, managers and/or subordinates vs. clients/customers/patients). METHODS: This prospective study is based on a pooled sample of 14,605 employees from three Danish surveys conducted in 2000, 2004 and 2005, providing a total of 19,366 observations. A single questionnaire-based item was used to assess exposure to unwanted sexual attention. The pooled dataset was merged with Danish register data on LTSA. The risk of first-onset episode of LTSA (up to 18 months after baseline) in connection with unwanted sexual attention was examined using Cox proportional hazards models. We estimated Hazard ratios (HR) and 95 % confidence intervals (95 % CI) adjusted for age, influence at work, work pace, occupational group and mode of data collection. We also adjusted for repeated measures from individual respondents by stratifying the Cox models by wave of survey. RESULTS: Unwanted sexual attention from colleagues, managers and/or subordinates predicted LTSA among men (HR 2.66; 95 % CI 1.42-5.00). Among women, an elevated but non-statistically significant risk of LTSA (HR 1.18; 95 % CI 0.65-2.14) was found. Unwanted sexual attention from clients/customers/patients did not predict LTSA, neither among men nor among women. CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate a significantly elevated risk of LTSA, among men only, in relation to exposure to unwanted sexual attention from colleagues, managers and/or subordinates. This study therefore suggests both individual and organizational costs associated with unwanted sexual attention at work. Due to the low prevalence of unwanted sexual attention, larger studies with more statistical power are needed to confirm (or disconfirm) the present findings. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4967501 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2016 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-49675012016-08-01 Unwanted sexual attention at work and long-term sickness absence: a follow-up register-based study Hogh, Annie Conway, Paul Maurice Clausen, Thomas Madsen, Ida Elisabeth Huitfeldt Burr, Hermann BMC Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: The current understanding of the relationship between unwanted sexual attention at work and long-term sickness absence (LTSA) is limited for three reasons: 1) the under-researched role of unwanted sexual attention perpetrated by individuals outside the work organization; 2) a widespread use of self-reported measures of sickness absence, with an unclear identification of sickness absence episodes of long duration; 3) the cross-sectional design of most existing studies. The aim of this study was therefore to investigate the relationship between self-reported unwanted sexual attention at work and subsequent LTSA (≥3 weeks), stratifying by gender and source of exposure (i.e., colleagues, managers and/or subordinates vs. clients/customers/patients). METHODS: This prospective study is based on a pooled sample of 14,605 employees from three Danish surveys conducted in 2000, 2004 and 2005, providing a total of 19,366 observations. A single questionnaire-based item was used to assess exposure to unwanted sexual attention. The pooled dataset was merged with Danish register data on LTSA. The risk of first-onset episode of LTSA (up to 18 months after baseline) in connection with unwanted sexual attention was examined using Cox proportional hazards models. We estimated Hazard ratios (HR) and 95 % confidence intervals (95 % CI) adjusted for age, influence at work, work pace, occupational group and mode of data collection. We also adjusted for repeated measures from individual respondents by stratifying the Cox models by wave of survey. RESULTS: Unwanted sexual attention from colleagues, managers and/or subordinates predicted LTSA among men (HR 2.66; 95 % CI 1.42-5.00). Among women, an elevated but non-statistically significant risk of LTSA (HR 1.18; 95 % CI 0.65-2.14) was found. Unwanted sexual attention from clients/customers/patients did not predict LTSA, neither among men nor among women. CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate a significantly elevated risk of LTSA, among men only, in relation to exposure to unwanted sexual attention from colleagues, managers and/or subordinates. This study therefore suggests both individual and organizational costs associated with unwanted sexual attention at work. Due to the low prevalence of unwanted sexual attention, larger studies with more statistical power are needed to confirm (or disconfirm) the present findings. BioMed Central 2016-07-30 /pmc/articles/PMC4967501/ /pubmed/27475538 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-016-3336-y Text en © The Author(s). 2016 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Hogh, Annie Conway, Paul Maurice Clausen, Thomas Madsen, Ida Elisabeth Huitfeldt Burr, Hermann Unwanted sexual attention at work and long-term sickness absence: a follow-up register-based study |
title | Unwanted sexual attention at work and long-term sickness absence: a follow-up register-based study |
title_full | Unwanted sexual attention at work and long-term sickness absence: a follow-up register-based study |
title_fullStr | Unwanted sexual attention at work and long-term sickness absence: a follow-up register-based study |
title_full_unstemmed | Unwanted sexual attention at work and long-term sickness absence: a follow-up register-based study |
title_short | Unwanted sexual attention at work and long-term sickness absence: a follow-up register-based study |
title_sort | unwanted sexual attention at work and long-term sickness absence: a follow-up register-based study |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4967501/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27475538 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-016-3336-y |
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