Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine the current status of presenteeism and absenteeism
among railroad workers as well as to investigate whether or not job stress level and psychosocial
well-being status are associated with presenteeism and absenteeism.
Methods: As the cross-sectional design, a self-reported questionnaire using the Korean Occupational
Stress Scale(KOSS), Psychosocial Well-being Index(PWI), and Work Productivity and Impairment-
General Health(WPAI-GH) was administered to railroad workers. Univariate and multivariate logistic
regressions were used to analyze the association between job stress, psychosocial well-being status and
presenteeism, absenteeism in 1,099 subjects.
Results: Among the study subjects, 52.0% and 22.0% experiened presenteeism and absenteeism,
respectively. Job stress level in railroad workers was higher than that in general workers. Multivariate
logistic regression with presenteeism as the dependent variable showed an elevated odds ratio of
3.56(95% CI 1.48-8.54) in the highest job stress group, and an odds ratio of 3.20(95% CI 1.94-5.26) in
the high-risk psychosocial stress group. There was no significant association between job stress level and
absenteeism, whereas weak association between psychosocial stress and absenteeism was found.
Conclusions: Since railroad workers have a high level of job stress and elevated experience of presenteeism,
a management strategy is required to control presenteeism and absenteeism in order to promote
railroad workers’health and safety.