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Sickness absence can link to suicidal tendencies

People who were absent from work for at least 7 days due to psychiatric disorder have a 6-fold excess risk of suicide, a 3.2-fold excess risk of death from other causes, e.g. a 1.8-fold excess risk of cardiovascular death, and a 1.7-fold excess risk of dying from smoking-related cancer, a 16-year French follow-up study with nearly 20.000 employees has shown.

Mental disorders affecting 30% to 50% of individuals in industrialized nations during their lifetime, and are especially frequent in adults of working age. A new study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology shows a statistically significant relation between absence periods and suicide as well as for death from other causes, even if adjusting data for workers? marital status and health behaviours the association was attenuated.

The scientists of the Centre de Recherche en Epidémiologie et Santé des Populations in France used data from the French GAZEL cohort study (n = 19,962). Physician-certified sickness absence records were extracted from administrative files (1990-1992) and were linked to mortality data from France's national registry of mortality (1993-2008, mean follow-up: 15.5 years).

The Authors concluded that Psychiatric sickness absence records could help identify individuals with suicidal tendencies and serve to monitor workers' health.

Source: http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2010/08/21/aje.kwq186.abstract