A Prospective Cohort Study of Presenteeism and Increased Risk of Divorce Among Japanese Workers

• Published in: Journal of occupational and environmental medicine Vol. 64; no. 11; p. e695
• Main Authors: Fujino, Yoshihisa, Okawara, Makoto, Hino, Ayako, Muramatsu, Keiji, Nagata, Tomohisa, Tateishi, Seiichiro, Tsuji, Mayumi, Ogami, Akira, Ishimaru, Tomohiro
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01.11.2022
• Subjects: COVID-19 - epidemiology; Divorce; Humans; Japan - epidemiology; Pandemics; Presenteeism; Prospective Studies; Quality of Life; Surveys and Questionnaires; Japan
• ISSN: 1536-5948
• DOI: 10.1097/JOM.0000000000002670

We examined the association between the presenteeism and the risk of divorce among Japanese workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. A prospective study of 27,036 individuals was conducted starting in December 2020, with 18,560 (68.7%) participating in the follow-up in December 2021. The Work Functioning Impairment Scale (WFun) was used to measure the degree of work function impairment. Compared with the group with the lowest WFun score, the odds ratio for the group with moderate WFun was 1.16 (95% confidence interval, 0.74 to 1.82; P = 0.525), and the odds ratio for the group with the highest WFun was 1.76 (95% confidence interval, 1.18 to 2.62; P = 0.006). This study suggests that supporting workers with presenteeism has important implications not only from the perspective of labor productivity in management but also for the individual's quality of life in terms of family relationships.