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Part-Time Sick Leave as a Treatment Method for Individuals with Musculoskeletal Disorders

Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation volume 22, pages 418–426 (2012)Cite this article

Abstract

Introduction There is increasing evidence that staying active is an important part of a recovery process for individuals on sick leave due to musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). It has been suggested that using part-time sick-leave rather than full-time sick leave will enhance the possibility of full recovery to the workforce, and several countries actively favor this policy. The aim of this paper is to examine if it is beneficial for individuals on sick leave due to MSDs to be on part-time sick leave compared to full-time sick leave. Methods A sample of 1,170 employees from the RFV-LS (register) database of the Social Insurance Agency of Sweden is used. The effect of being on part-time sick leave compared to full-time sick leave is estimated for the probability of returning to work with full recovery of lost work capacity. A two-stage recursive bivariate probit model is used to deal with the endogeneity problem. Results The results indicate that employees assigned to part-time sick leave do recover to full work capacity with a higher probability than those assigned to full-time sick leave. The average treatment effect of part-time sick leave is 25 percentage points. Conclusions Considering that part-time sick leave may also be less expensive than assigning individuals to full-time sick leave, this would imply efficiency improvements from assigning individuals, when possible, to part-time sick leave.

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Notes

  1. Exchange rate (2009-06-04) 1 Swedish krona = €10.78.

  2. RFV drew data on individuals starting a sick-leave period the same 2-week period for several years in order to analyze and follow individuals assigned to sick leave at the same 2-week period across different years. As described we have access to the 2002 sample of this data.

  3. In practice, we expect that there is a little bit of both, with the aim here to identify the size of the causal effect.

  4. It has been showed that identification is achieved even if the same exogenous regressor appears in both equations, provided this regressor is sufficiently variable, so that theoretical identification does not require availability of any additional instrument in x 1i [19].

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research. The funding source is a Swedish government research agency that initiates and supports basic and applied research with a view to improving our knowledge about working life, public health and welfare. The funding source had no influence in the design, analysis or in the preparation of the manuscript.

Conflict of interest

None declared.

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Affiliations

  1. Swedish Business School, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden

    Daniela Andrén & Mikael Svensson

  2. Department of Economics and Statistics, Karlstad University, Universitetsgatan 1, 651 88, Karlstad, Sweden

    Mikael Svensson

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  1. Daniela Andrén
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  2. Mikael Svensson
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Correspondence to Mikael Svensson.

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Andrén, D., Svensson, M. Part-Time Sick Leave as a Treatment Method for Individuals with Musculoskeletal Disorders. J Occup Rehabil 22, 418–426 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10926-011-9348-7

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Keywords

  • Sick leave
  • Part-time
  • Musculoskeletal disorders
  • Endogenous regressors