RESUMO
SUMMARY BACKGROUND: Absenteeism is a major cause of loss in jobs, man-hours, productivity, and lives in the health sector. It also has grave consequences for global economies. OBJECTIVE: To determine the overall absenteeism rate and the factors that conduces to absenteeism among hospital workers. DESIGN: Cross sectional descriptive type. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: The entire staff in the hospital was enlisted in the study and data were collected through self-administered and semi-structured questionnaire. RESULTS: Fifty three percent of the 474 respondents reported at least one absence spell in the year. Absenteeism was highest among domestic staff (70.8%) and lowest among the doctors (46.9%). The average number of spells per absentee per year was 1.7 and the average duration of spells was 4.1 days while the incapacity rate was 7.2 days. The overall absenteeism rate was 1.7%. Absenteeism was significantly associated with increasing age (p=0.000), gender, [females
