Determinants of sickness absence in police: Case study of Abu Dhabi police department, UAE.

Sickness absence among employees is reported to reduce organization profits and performance and thus threaten the organization's existence in the market. The monitoring and reporting of data on sickness absence is considered a crucial element of reactive health and safety control systems in organizations. It is one of the major indicators of organizational continuous commitment to improving the quality of working conditions. However, sickness absence in Police in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is less investigated. The Occupational Health and Safety Survey developed for this study was distributed to 1317 employees of the Capital Police Directorate of Abu Dhabi Police. The survey was answered by 760 employees (58 %). While 230 (17 %) refused to participate, 259 (20 %) did not return the surveys, and 68 (5 %) were not surveyed as they were on authorized long-term leave for various reasons (and did not receive the survey). This study analyzes if the psychosocial work factors, physical work exposure factors, and employee's perception of the health and safety management system predict sickness absence in the Abu Dhabi Police after taking into account the other covariates. This study found no association between job control and the risk of sickness absence, in contrast to findings from other studies. There was also no association between psychological job demand and the perception of health and safety management with the risk of sickness absence in this study. Officers who fit the 'job strain' category did not have a significant increase in the risk of sickness absence in this study. However, high levels of combined physical exposures reported a significant relation with sickness absence. In conclusion, this, being one of the first studies in the region, provides insights on work factors and perception of HSE on sickness absence and provides recommendations within the context of the region for future studies and address sickness absence among police in the UAE.

Early retirement intentions among Abu Dhabi Police: investigating the role of psychosocial work factors and sickness absenteeism.

BACKGROUND: Police departments are encouraged to integrate their health and safety management systems with the operational arrangements to demonstrate commitment to the improvement of working environment in the police is by the collection and analysis of occupational health data such as sickness absence and early retirement intention. METHODS: About 760 responses to the Occupational Health and Safety Survey by the Abu Dhabi Police employees was used to analyse the early retirement intentions considering the work-related factors and sickness absence data. RESULTS: Logistic regression results of the unadjusted model reported higher odds that lower levels of co-worker support, supervisor support, workplace support related to intentions of early retirement. Also, unfavourable perception of health management increases the odds to early retirement among the employees. CONCLUSION: The outcome of this study provides insights into the determinants of early retirement intentions in the less explored region of middle-east, specifically in Abu Dhabi. Thorough analysis of such data will help police organisations to prioritise plans and improve the health and wellbeing of officers, in turn contributing to strengthening the fight against crime and minimizing the number of occupational injuries and premature exit from paid work.

Predicting disability retirement among Abu Dhabi police using multiple measure of sickness absence.

BACKGROUND: Disability retirement has been investigated in the last two decades using predictors such as measures of sickness absence, psychological, social, and organizational work factors. The impact of various health-related and sickness measures on disability retirement across various occupational group reveal a significant relation. However, current literature lacks understanding in police personnel. METHODS: This study examines the roles of demographic and measures of sickness absence on disability retirement among police personnel in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The case-control design was used to predict disability retirement wherein controls were matched with cases according to age and gender from those who worked in the same administration as the case at baseline, to reduce the possible confounding influence of these variables. Conditional logistic regression models were used determine the odds-ratio of various measures of sickness absence in predicting disability retirement. RESULTS: Results indicate that increased number of spells, and number of days of sickness absence can predict disability retirements among police personnel in the UAE. Results indicate that odds ratios for disability retirement for the total exposure period increased from 1.76 (95% CI = 1.42-2.20) for spells of 4-7d to 2.47 (95%CI = 1.79-3.40) for spells of > 4 weeks. When compared with their married counterparts, non-married police employees had a statistically significant increase in odds of disability retirement of almost three fold (OR = 2.93, 95% CI = 1.55-5.56). Non-field and field police officers, on the other hand, had significantly reduced odds of disability retirement compared with admin/supportive staff (OR = 0.43 and 0.28 with 95% CI = 0.19-0.96 and 0.13-0.61 respectively). Odds ratios of disability retirement at end of the exposure period for the matching variables with those obtained after additionally adjusting for all demographic variables (model b), namely, marital status, occupation, employment grade and type, and educational level. The odds ratios of disability retirement remained significantly raised for the total number of days of sickness absence and for the number of spells of sickness absence for all spell types. CONCLUSIONS: Recommendation to reduce the number of future disability retirements among Abu Dhabi Police include structured problem-solving process addressed through stepwise meetings between the line-managers and the employee.