Trends of Absenteeism in Croatia: A Longitudinal Study From 2000 to 2012

Abstract

The aim of this article is to determine the trends in absentism from 2000 to 2012 in Croatia and to examine if the observed trends could be related to the regulations implemented to keep the absentism on low level. In Croatia only family doctors  keep the responsibility for sick leave and were always been targeted by many regualtions to keep absentisam on appropriate level. A study was observational and retrocpective based on the official CHIF data available from the web-page. Although the average number of sick leave days had been bisected (from 30,58 to 15,08 days per patient) sick leave rate only slightly falled down (from 3,32% to 3,11%). It seems that the restrictive measures did not significantly affect the number of sick leave cases. Such a results and other european research studies indicates that without reduction of the institutional rights there will be no reducing of sick leave rates