The risk of being sent on sick leave is different from region to region, a new report shows. The comparative leaders in regions with the most sick days per workers are Kainuu in the north and Kymenlaakso in the south, while employees in the capital region and Uusimaa take the least days off for illness.
The reasons behind the statistics correlate with the type of work in question. The most sick days are taken in fields where the work itself is physically demanding. Age is also a determining factor: regions that young residents have left have higher proportions of older workers, which can be seen in the figures.
The capital region’s and Uusimaa’s statistics are bright because it is where the youngest and most educated demographics in the country reside.
Occupational health physician Maaret Helintö says that highly educated employees such as doctors take fewer and fewer sick days per year.
“Maybe it’s because doctors are good at assessing the nature of their own symptoms, and can determine whether going to work would aggravate a flu or similar illness,” Helintö says.
All in all, 40,000 fewer sick leave days were taken in Finland in 2014 compared with the situation ten years previously.
