Presenteeism among emergency health care staff.

OBJECTIVES: To estimate the prevalence of presenteeism among different categories of hospital and pre-hospital emergency health care professionals in the Principality of Asturias, Spain, and to define the sociodemographic characteristics and workplace factors associated with presenteeism in all categories.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: Cross-sectional descriptive study carried out during the last half of 2014 and first half of 2015. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collecta data on sociodemographic and work-related variables and perception of work as stressful. The respondents, who answered voluntarily and anonymously, assessed themselves on the Stanford Presenteeism Scale-6 adapted for use in Spain.

RESULTS: The prevalence of presenteeism was 52.9% among the 323 respondents. Presenteeism was associated with stress (P<.01), place of work (P=.004), and bearing responsibility for dependent persons (P=.034) in the group overall. The association between stress and presenteeism was clearly present in emergency physicians (P=.049) and in nurses with dependents under their care (P=.016).

CONCLUSION: The prevalence of presenteeism is high among emergency staff in the Principality of Asturias. Presenteeism is associated with diverse factors.