Examining factors associated with the length of short-term disability-free days among workers with previous short-term disability episodes

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to examine the timing of short-term disability recurrence among workers who have previously experienced a short-term disability episode. METHODS: The dataset comes from a Canadian resource sector company's 2003 to 2006 short-term disability leave and human resource datasets. The multi-year dataset consists of the records of 3593 employees who experienced at least on short-term disability episode between 2003 and 2006. RESULTS: The overall 1-year disability-free rate was 72.1% ± 1.6%. About half of workers with previous disability episodes for mental/behavioral disorders were disability free for more than 800 days. In contrast, about 50% of workers with previous disability episodes for physical disorders were disability free for more than 1300 days. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest the majority of workers with previous short-term disability episodes for mental/behavioral disorders remain disability free for more than 2 years. However, the duration of disability free days for these workers is half that of other workers with previous episodes.