Background factors that affect whether employees can return to work after long sickness absences or not

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This study attempted to determine the factors that affect the status of employees after one and two years after absence from work because of common mental disorders.A cohort of 78 employees on sick leave due to psychiatric disorders (F3 and F4 in ICD-10) completed a self-report survey at the baseline and were followed up for one and two years. The survey items included: age, gender, presence/absence of a spouse and children, working and overtime hours, frequency of changing jobs, psychological stress in and outside the workplace, satisfaction with work, support from families and companies, relationships with others, GAF score, and duration of absence from work. Questionnaires and scales, including the GHQ-30, MPS, NEO-FFI and RSS, were also used. Statistic analysis revealed that "state of work after 1 year" was markedly associated with "psychological stress outside the work" and "conscientiousness". For employees with common mental disorders, psychological stress outside the workplace is more significant than that in the workplace and it affect whether they could return to work or not. Therefore, psychiatrists need to be mindful about psychological stress outside, as well as within, the workplace when dealing with such patients.