Table 2

Description of employees in a general working population sample with various histories of registered sickness absence (2001–2007)

	No absence† n=1535	Stable low† n=521	Distant high† n=198	Recent high† n=150	Stable high† n=177
Gender (%)*
Women	48.6	62.2	71.2	64.0	71.8
Age (mean (SD))*	44.1 (11.5)	45.8 (10.7)	47.5 (10.5)	46.9 (11.1)	50.4 (9.4)
Level of education (%)*
Higher education	45.3	33.6	33.9	34.6	33.3
Upper secondary	41.6	42.6	42.9	46.0	35.6
Elementary or less	12.6	22.3	22.2	18.7	30.5
Missing	0.5	1.5	1.0	0.7	0.6
Occupational class (%)*
Higher non-manual, Entrepren.	22.8	10.5	15.1	10.7	10.2
Intermediate—low non-manual	43.4	39.2	36.9	44.0	37.3
Skilled—unskilled manual	32.2	48.2	46.5	44.0	49.2
Missing	1.6	2.1	1.5	1.3	3.4
Income (%)*
≥300 000 SEK	41.2	29.0	27.3	27.3	17.5
150 000–299 000SEK	49.3	63.9	62.6	68.0	73.5
≤149 000 SEK	9.5	7.1	10.1	4.7	9.0
Form of employment (%)
Permanent job	91.7	91.5	90.4	91.4	90.4
Temporary job	7.2	7.3	8.1	7.3	8.5
Missing	1.1	1.2	1.5	1.3	1.1

Bivariate associations examined using χ² tests for categorical and ANOVA for continuous variables. Missing responses are handled using pairwise deletion.
*p<0.001.
†No absence: no registered sickness absence days (SA, ie, beyond 14 days) during the follow-up period 2001–2007. Stable low: SA below the median split 2001–2007. Distant high: SA above the median split 2001–2004 and below the median split 2005–2007. Recent high: SA below the median split 2001–2004 and above the median split 2005–2007. Stable high: SA above the median split 2001–2007.
ANOVA, analysis of variance.