Table 3. Studies on various office types and sick leave.

Author & year	Explored office types	Statistical model	Confounders	Outcome variable	Results
Danielsson 2008	Cell office vs. shared (2–3), small open-plan (4–9), medium open-plan (10–24), large open-plan (>24), flex, combi office	Odds ratio	Age, sex, job rank, industry	Any sick leave (self-reported), more than 7 days of sick leave (self-reported), within last 12 months	Sick leave was lower in cell offices and flex offices and highest in medium-sized open-plan offices
Pejtersen 2011	Cell office vs. office with 2, 3–6, >6 employees	Rate ratio	Age, sex, SES, BMI, alcohol, smoking, physical activity	Days of sickness absence within last 12 months (self-reported)	Compared to cell offices, occupants in 2-person offices had 50%, in 3–6-person offices 36%, and in open-plan offices (>6 persons) 62% more sick leave days
Danielsson 2014 Danielsson 2016	Cell office vs. shared (2–3), small open-plan (4–9), medium open-plan (10–24), large open-plan (>24), flex, combi office	Odds ratio	Age, sex, job rank, industry	≥2 short sick leave spells of one week or less (self-reported), any long (medically certified) sick leave spell >1 week (self-reported), 7 days of sick leave in total (self-reported), within last 12 months	short sick leave spells were higher in all 3 open-plan offices, especially for men in flex offices. For long sick leave spells, a significantly higher risk was found among women in large open-plan offices and for total number of sick days among men in flex offices.
Platts 2020	Cell office vs. shared (2–3), small open-plan (4–9), medium open-plan (10–24), large open-plan (>24), flex office	Rate ratio	Age, sex, educational level, labour market sector	Number of days and number of episodes of sick leave (employer records), number of days of sick leave (self-reported), within last 12 months	Office type was generally not associated with employer records of number of episodes or days of sick leave, except that the total number of days of leave was higher in flex offices compared to cell offices. In general, office type was not associated with self-reported days of sick leave.
Nielsen 2020	Cell office vs. shared office (2–3), open-plan workspace (>3)	Risk ratio	Survey year, organizational affiliation	≥1 instance of medically certified sickness absence and the total number of days within last months	employees working in a shared office and an open-plan workspace had significantly higher risk of medically certified sickness absence when compared to employees working in cell offices. Office design was not related to the number of days with absence.

SES: socioeconomic status: BMI: body mass index.