The impact of intervention strategies to reduce sickness-absence

An effort was made to meta-analyze evaluation studies of the impact of intervention strategies to reduce sickness absence at the firm level. The studies were restricted to the Nordic countries, which are thought to be comparable on account of their similar welfare state arrangements. Meta-analysis is a method of estimating a weighted mean effect. Some of its prerequisites are briefly discussed. It was found that in general the studies differed in too many ways to make meta-analysis meaningful. Therefore the two meta-analyses performed in this study are based on examples of intervention strategies at the firm-level collected in Norway. The main purpose of this data collection is to inspire firms in their efforts to develop intervention strategies to reduce the incidence of sickness absence. As the data do not fulfil all the prerequisites for meta-analysis, the results found in this report should be regarded as demonstrations of the method, rather than as proper estimates of effects.