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Presenteeism in college students: reliability and validity of the Presenteeism Scale for Students

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Abstract

Objective

Presenteeism is the impaired work performance due to health problems. We aimed to develop a Presenteeism Scale for Students (PSS), and to reveal the existence of presenteeism among students.

Methods

Students (n = 5,701) in 4 national universities in Japan were recruited via the school-based health examination. Moreover, 122 students participated in a 2-week interval test–retest to examine the reliability and criterion-related validity of the PSS.

Results

Of the students, 59.2% indicated some health problems. Allergy was most prevalent health problems, affecting 35.7% of the whole students. Students with emotional problems had higher degree of presenteeism than those with the other problems. The Cronbach’s α of the work impairment score of the PSS was 0.90. The Spearman’s coefficient for the test–retest score was 0.80 (P < 0.001). Regarding criterion-related validity, Spearman’s coefficient between the work impairment score of the PSS and summary score of the SF-36 was −0.60 (P < 0.001).

Conclusions

These findings suggest that the PSS can be expected to be useful for assessment of students with presenteeism. Furthermore, we found that the majority of students have some health problems, and proposed that the issue of presenteeism on campus should be addressed.

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Abbreviations

PSS:

Presenteeism Scale for Students

SF-36:

Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Health Survey

PHC:

Primary health condition

WIS:

Work impairment score

WOS:

Work output score

HA:

Hours of absenteeism

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all of the staff of Akita University Health Administration Center, Nara Women’s University Health Administration Center, Fukuoka University of Education Health Center and Osaka University Health Care Center for conducting this survey. The authors are also grateful to Yasunobu Kabeshita, M.D. for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health Promotion Medicine, Division of Preventive and Environmental Medicine, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, D3 2-2 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan

    Masateru Matsushita & Yoshiro Sugita

  2. Osaka University Health Care Center, Toyonaka, Japan

    Hiroyoshi Adachi, Takayuki Kumano-go, Schuhei Yamamura, Nakamori Suganuma, Akira Mikami, Toshiki Moriyama & Yoshiro Sugita

  3. Department of Nursing, International University of Health and Welfare Graduate School, Odawara, Japan

    Mikako Arakida

  4. Health Administration Center, Akita University, Akita, Japan

    Ikuro Namura

  5. Health Administration Center, Nara Women’s University, Nara, Japan

    Yuko Takahashi

  6. Health Center, Fukuoka University of Education, Munakata, Japan

    Masakazu Miyata

  7. Department of Psychiatry, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Suita, Japan

    Yoshihisa Shigedo

Authors
  1. Masateru Matsushita
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  2. Hiroyoshi Adachi
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  3. Mikako Arakida
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  4. Ikuro Namura
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  5. Yuko Takahashi
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  6. Masakazu Miyata
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  7. Takayuki Kumano-go
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  8. Schuhei Yamamura
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  9. Yoshihisa Shigedo
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  10. Nakamori Suganuma
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  11. Akira Mikami
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  12. Toshiki Moriyama
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  13. Yoshiro Sugita
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Masateru Matsushita.

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Matsushita, M., Adachi, H., Arakida, M. et al. Presenteeism in college students: reliability and validity of the Presenteeism Scale for Students. Qual Life Res 20, 439–446 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-010-9763-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-010-9763-9

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