Sickness absence among employees of the State Court of Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil.

Background: The state of health of civil servants is a focus of much interest to public organizations. Within this context, health promotion, protection and recovery pose a challenge to nursing professionals engaged in occupational health surveillance.

Objective: To identify the main reasons of sickness absence among employees of the State Court of Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, in the period from 2014 through 2016.

Methods: Documentary, exploratory and quantitative study in which variables of interest were sex, age, position, department, leave type, International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) codes and duration of sick leave spells. The significance level was set to p=0.05 and the corresponding 95% confidence interval.

Results: Diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue (17.8%), mental and behavioral disorders (14.5%) and factors influencing health status and contact with health services (6.2%) were the main reasons for sickness absence. The absenteeism rate along the analyzed period was higher for women (74.7%), employees aged 41 to 60 (63.5%) and judicial analysists (71.8%).

Conclusion: Musculoskeletal and mental disorders were the leading causes of sickness absence among employees of the State Court of Campo Grande. The results of the present study might help health managers improve the working conditions of this population of workers.