Table 3.

Adjusted hazard ratios for all-length sickness absence periods (≥ 1 day) and for long-term sickness absence (≥ 31 days), covariates were age, sector, education, and previous sickness absence

Perceived stress	All-length sickness absence periods (periods ≥ 1 day)			Long-term sickness absence (periods ≥ 31 days)
	Hazard ratio	95% confidence interval	p value	Hazard ratio	95% confidence interval	p value
Women
Often/always-stress	1.43	[1.34–1.51]	< 0.0001	2.26	[1.89–2.70]	< 0.0001
Sometimes-stress	1.18	[1.13–1.24]	< 0.0001	1.46	[1.23–1.73]	< 0.0001
Seldom/never-stress (reference level)	1	–	–	1	–	–
Men
Often/always-stress	1.25	[1.13–1.38]	< 0.0001	1.22	[0.86–1.73]	0.26
Sometimes-stress	1.16	[1.07–1.25]	0.0002	*	*	*
Seldom/never-stress (reference level)	1	–	–	1	–	–
Total
Interaction sex and often/always-stress			0.049			0.002
Interaction sex and sometimes-stress			0.54			*

*We did not perform the analyses of ‘Sometimes’-stress and ‘long-term sickness absence’ for men because the proportional hazard assumption was not fulfilled