Recurrent Sickness Absence due to Depression: a two-year cohort among Japanese employees

Purpose: Depression has a high recurrence rate among employees. There have been few studies investigating risk factors for recurrent sickness absence due to depression after return to work (RTW). The objective of this study was to identify potential risk factors.

Methods: Subjects were 540 full-time employees at the biggest telecommunication company in Japan who returned to work from April 2002 to March 2008 after their first leave of absence due to depression. The Cox proportional hazard model was employed to find risk factors for recurrent sickness absence by analyzing variables including demographic, work-related and work environmental factors.

Results: Of 540 study subjects, 200 employees (37.0%) experienced recurrent sickness absence due to depression after RTW within the follow-up period. Higher organizational job demand evaluated by the Brief Job Stress Questionnaire (BJSQ) was found to be a risk factor (OR 1.46, 95% CI 1.01-2.10) for recurrent sickness absence due to depression adjusted for confounding factors.

Conclusions: Our study showed that the BJSQ could help occupational professionals for tertiary prevention of employees’ mental health disorders.