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Common Health Complaints and Their Underlying Causes of Sick Leave
The primary reasons why employees in Sweden report sick today can be divided into two dominant categories. These affect the entire labor market but manifest differently depending on industry and role:
- Psychosocial strain: Stress, high workload, and insufficient recovery are the main drivers behind sick leave. High-performing individuals, often within the service sector and fast-growing companies, are particularly affected. Early symptoms such as sleep disturbances and concentration difficulties are often ignored, which can lead to exhaustion before any measures are taken.
- Ergonomic strain and musculoskeletal disorders: In occupations involving heavy lifting, repetitive movements, or static postures, back, neck, and shoulder problems are the most common causes of absence. It is rarely about a single accident, but rather a gradual deterioration where the body signals pain long before sick leave becomes necessary.
Healthcare, Education, and Industry – the Most Affected Groups
A report from the Swedish Work Environment Authority shows that certain sectors are significantly more affected by work-related health problems than others. Within welfare professions, such as primary school teachers, preschool teachers, and assistant nurses, approximately four out of ten report experiencing work-related ill health. Women are particularly overrepresented in these statistics.
Similarly, in traditionally male-dominated professions within construction and industry, such as carpenters and machine operators, the figures are at comparable levels. However, the problem here more often relates to physical strain and wear-and-tear injuries.
The Swedish Work Environment Authority emphasizes that these are not isolated cases, but structural challenges. Healthcare, social care, education, as well as the construction and industrial sectors are characterized by a combination of physical strain, psychological pressure, and organizational demands. For employers, this means that general health policies are rarely sufficient; instead, initiatives need to be adapted to the specific risks present within each occupational group.
High Workload Behind the Problems
Only 6 percent of the complaints are caused by accidents. Instead, factors such as excessive workload, physically demanding working positions, and unclear expectations account for the majority of health problems. The consequences for both society and the individual are significant. For approximately 400,000 people, these issues have resulted in sick leave over the past year, and half of those affected have been forced to seek medical care due to the problems they experienced.
Working Proactively with Corporate Health
Proactive health screenings enable companies to work preventively with occupational health and workplace well-being, rather than acting only once sick leave and reduced performance have already become a reality. By combining medical tests, such as relevant blood analyses, with anonymous health surveys, employers can gain an overall view of the organization’s health status.
Blood tests can provide early indications of, for example, stress-related effects, nutritional deficiencies, inflammatory conditions, or risky consumption patterns. When these are complemented with self-reported, anonymous responses regarding workload, recovery, sleep, and overall well-being, a broader and more nuanced decision-making basis is created.
The results are compiled at organizational and departmental level in a report to the company. With such a basis, the company can:
- Identify early signs of ill health
- Target initiatives where the need is greatest
- Adapt workplace measures based on actual risks
- Monitor the effects of implemented measures over time
Proactive health screenings therefore become not a control function, but a tool for systematic work environment management and long-term sustainability, for both employees and the organization.
Do you want to reduce sick leave and work more preventively with the work environment and health?
Discover how you can easily offer your employees medically based health checks – tailored to your organization and your needs. Read more about how our health checks can complement your occupational health care.
