Repeated short-term sick-leave as a possible symptom of psycho-social problems.

As part of a research project concerning repeated short-term sick-leave an intensive study has been performed aiming at estimating the frequency and character of psycho-social problems in a population with a minimum of six short sick spells during a 12-month period, in comparison with an age- and sex-matched sample of patients who went to the local general practitioner in the same area. The results show that psycho-social problems are twice as common in the group with repeated short-term sick-leave.