Hypertension, gender, job hazards and absenteeism in a 1973 national sample of U.S. workers

Abstract

This study presents results from analyses of statistical associations between absenteeism and self-reports of doctors' diagnosed hypertension. Data are drawn from a national probability sample of 1308 employees working more than 20 hours per week- the Quality of Employment Survey for 1973. A number of analyses are carried out, including (1) comparison of means of hypertensives, of hypertensives taking medication, of hypertensives not taking medication and normotensives; (2) two-limit Tobit regresslons, which account for the statistical problems of truncated data, are run In which absenteeism is the dependent variable and measures of hypertension, as well as age, race, gender, schooling and measures of job characteristics are the Independent variables. No statistically significant associations are discovered between absenteeism and any of the measures of hypertension. Care should be exercised In attempting to generalize these findings beyond this sample, since the data rely on self-report, they are old and statistical power is low due to the modest number (n = 146) of hypertensives in the sample.