Table 1.
Characteristics of all the new sickness absence (SA) spells due to back pain (M54) >14 days during a 2.5-year period
| Characteristics | All | Training data | Validation data |
| Number of SA spells | 64 048 | 44 833 | 19 215 |
| Number of individuals | 56 856 | 41 146 | 18 521 |
| Duration of the SA spell | n (% ) | ||
| ≤90 days | 47 107 (73.5) | 33 011 (73.6) | 14 096 (73.3) |
| >90 and ≤180 days | 6563 (10.2) | 4563 (10.2) | 2000 (10.4) |
| >180 and ≤365 days | 4495 (7.0) | 3126 (7.0) | 1369 (7.1) |
| >365 and <1000 days | 4122 (6.4) | 2898 (6.5) | 1224 (6.4) |
| ≥1000 days | 1761 (2.7) | 1235 (2.8) | 526 (2.7) |
| Situation at the end of the SA spell* | n (%) | ||
| Death | 142 (0.2) | 99 (0.2) | 43 (0.2) |
| Disability pension | 1653 (2.6) | 1160 (2.6) | 493 (2.6) |
| The individual was >65 years of age† | 339 (0.5) | 236 (0.5) | 103 (0.5) |
| Returning to work or other activity | 61 882 (96.7) | 43 316 (96.7) | 18 576 (96.7) |
| Other reasons‡ | 32 (<0.1) | 22 (<0.1) | 10 (<0.1) |
| General descriptive statistics for the duration of the SA spells | Days | ||
| Median | 37 | 37 | 37 |
| IQR | 22–98 | 22–98 | 22–99 |
| Mean (SD) | 130.3±233.2 | 130.3±233.7 | 130.1±232.2 |
*As only one person emigrated, it is not being shown in the table.
†Sixty-five years is the general age for retirement in Sweden.
‡Shift to other social benefits such as parental leave or unemployment.