Median and average lengths of sickness absence episodes, median and average number of absence days yearly and median and average number of written sickness absence certificates yearly (2014–2016) by FA status, n=33 592 (patients with a sickness absence certified by a physician)
| Total length of sickness absences per year | Average length of a single sickness absence episode | Number of written sickness absence certificates | ||||
| av | md | av | md | av | md | |
| 2014 (n=23 232) | *** | *** | *** | |||
| 1yFA | 46.1 | 23 | 9.2 | 4 | 5.0 | 4 |
| pFA | 42.6 | 25 | 7.1 | 4 | 6.0 | 5 |
| Non-FA | 14.4 | 6 | 7.7 | 3 | 1.9 | 1 |
| 2015 (n=25 151) | *** | *** | *** | |||
| 1yFA | 41.2 | 14 | 11.7 | 4 | 3.5 | 3 |
| pFA | 51.4 | 29 | 8.0 | 4 | 6.4 | 6 |
| Non-FA | 14.0 | 5 | 7.5 | 3 | 1.9 | 1 |
| 2016 (n=38 054) | *** | *** | *** | |||
| 1yFA | 28.0 | 10 | 9.1 | 4 | 3.1 | 2 |
| pFA | 51.6 | 24 | 8.8 | 4 | 5.9 | 5 |
| Non-FA | 12.5 | 5 | 6.9 | 3 | 1.8 | 1 |
| 2014–2016 (n=56 042) | *** | *** | *** | |||
| 1yFA | 82.5 | 41 | 9.8 | 4 | 8.4 | 7 |
| pFA | 138.4 | 96 | 7.9 | 4 | 17.4 | 16 |
| Non-FA | 17.7 | 7 | 7.3 | 3 | 2.4 | 2 |
***P<0.001 (Kruskal-Wallis test).
FA status was defined as the top decile of attenders (FA 10%, FA10).
av , average ; 1yFA, patients who were in the top decile of attenders in 2014; md, median; non-FA, non-frequent attender patients who were never in the top decile were considered as a reference group; pFA, persistent frequent attender patients who were in the top decile in all three study years (2014, 2015 and 2016).