Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden, individuals could claim compensation for the unpaid waiting day of a sickness absence spell, through a new waiting day reimbursement scheme. The factors associated with claiming this are unknown. Aim: To investigate factors associated with claiming the waiting day reimbursement among blue-collar workers in the retail and wholesale industry. Method: A prospective cohort study using nationwide linked registers in Sweden. All blue-collar workers in the retail and wholesale industry in 2019 ( N = 297,378) were followed March 11 2020–30 September 2021 regarding waiting day reimbursement and sickness absence spells >14 days. Sickness absence spells were matched to waiting day reimbursement based on dates. A logistic general estimating equation model was used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of sickness absence spells having waiting day reimbursement, adjusted for sociodemographic and sickness absence-related factors. Results: Fifty per cent of the workers and 57% of all sickness absence spells had waiting day reimbursement. Longer sickness absence spells had lower odds of having waiting day reimbursement, with a gradient depending on spell duration (OR 0.44; CI 0.40–0.48 for spells ≥365 days compared to 15–21 days). Sickness absence spells with COVID-like diagnoses had higher odds of waiting day reimbursement (2.30; 2.12–2.49 compared to musculoskeletal diagnoses). Most differences regarding sociodemographic or work-related variables were non-significant. Conclusions: The waiting day reimbursement was used by just over half of those who could. The factors associated with the sickness absence spell itself had stronger associations with claiming waiting day reimbursement than peoples’ sociodemographic characteristics.
Farrants et al. (Sat,) studied this question.