Literature review reveals inadequate conceptual definitions and limited evidence on sickness presence among working populations, highlighting the need for precise occupational terminology.
The term "sickness presence" is used to describe situations where the ability to work is impaired due to disease, but yet the person goes to work. A problem is that the term "sickness presence" implies that being present at work is something exceptional if a person is sick. Most people diagnosed with a disease or disorder do, however, go to work and are not sick listed. Furthermore, the term "sickness presence" is rather diffuse, and it would be beneficial if one or several more specific terms could be used. The current body of scientific literature does not provide sufficient evidence to draw conclusions on the consequences of sickness presence.
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Vingård et al. (2004) studied this question.
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