Research note: reliability of self-report sickness absence data in the health service.

Rees and Cooper (1990) used self-reports of sickness absence during the previous six months as a dependent measure in a diagnostic survey of stress in one health district. Comparison of self-reports with actual sickness absence showed that it achieved a high level of association (0.95) and can be recommended as an alternative to actual sickness data in studies in which, for whatever reason, actual sickness absence is difficult to obtain.