Introduction. The education sector is significantly affected by the costs associated with sickness absence (SA) from work due to physical and/or psychological disabilities.
Purpose. This study aims to analyze longitudinal administrative data on SA from work due to physical and/or psychological disability among employees of a Canadian public-school organization. Specifically, it is designed to: 1. Compare the number of days of absence due to physical and/or psychological disability over 5 years; 2. Identify whether different physical and/or psychological SA patterns are influenced by sex, age, and career stages; 3. Determine whether specific sequences of SA are observed over time.
Method. SA days were extracted for employees with a full-time regular status over 5 years (N=1448). The sample was mainly composed of women (1061;73.3%). The mean age was 48 (SD=7.5). Four functions were observed: teachers (875;60.4%), clerical personnel (365;25.2%), professionals (121;8.4%), managers (87;6%). Most of them were at the mid-career stage (1349;93.2%). Trajectory analyses were conducted using Mplus within R to identify the number of the physical and/or psychological SA patterns. Using R-TraMineR package, sequence analyses were performed to test if some sequences of change are more frequent than others.
Results. Four SA trajectories were identified: 1) No SA, 2) SA due to physical disability, 3) SA due to psychological disability, and 4) SA due to both. Among the studied variables, only sex showed a slight difference, with women being marginally more at risk of taking SA. Sequence analyses did not reveal any specific patterns, as SA were generally isolated events.
Conclusion. Educational institutions can implement targeted interventions to prevent SA among staff, with particular attention to women and teachers. This contribution will also provide an opportunity to discuss how administrative data can be used by organizations to prevent SA from work due to physical and/or psychological disabilities.