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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Organizational Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1385708

Psychosocial well-being index and sick leave in the workplace: a structural equation modelling of Wittyfit data

Provisionally accepted
Rémi Colin-Chevalier Rémi Colin-Chevalier 1*Bruno Pereira Bruno Pereira 2Samuel Dewavrin Samuel Dewavrin 3Thomas Cornet Thomas Cornet 3Julien Steven Baker Julien Steven Baker 4Frederic Dutheil Frederic Dutheil 1
  • 1 CNRS, LaPSCo, Physiological and Psychosocial Stress, Université Clermont Auvergne, Occupational and Environmental Medicine, CHU Clermont-Ferrand, Clermont-Ferrand, France
  • 2 Biostatistics Unit, DRCI, CHU Clermont-Ferrand, Clermont-Ferrand, France
  • 3 Cegid, Lyon, France
  • 4 Centre for Health and Exercise Science Research, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Honk Kong, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Psychosocial well-being, which assesses emotional, psychological, social, and collective well-being, could help measure risk and duration of sick leave in workers.Objective: This study aims to build a structural equation model of a psychosocial well-being index based on 10 psychosocial factors and investigate its association with sick leave.Methods: Data of workers using Wittyfit was collected in 2018. Psychosocial factors (job satisfaction, atmosphere, recognition, work-life balance, meaning, work organization, values, workload, autonomy, and stress) were self-assessed using health-related surveys, while sick leave records were provided by volunteer companies.Results: A total of 1,399 workers were included in the study (mean age: 39.4±9.4, mean seniority: 9.2±7.7, 49.8% of women, 12.0% managers). The prevalence of absenteeism was 34.5%, with an average of 8.48±28.7 days of sick leave per worker. Structural equation modelling facilitated computation of workers' psychosocial well-being index (AIC: 123,016.2, BIC: 123,231.2, RMSEA: 0.03). All factors, except workload (p=.9), were influential, with meaning (β=0.72, 95% CI 0.69 to 0.74), values (0.69, 0.67 to 0.70) and job satisfaction (0.64, 0.61 to 0.66) being the main drivers (P<.001). Overall, psychosocial well-being was found to be a protective factor for sick leave, with a 2% decreased risk (OR=0.98, 95% CI 0.98 to 0.99, P<.001) and duration (IRR=0.98, 95% CI 0.97 to 0.99, P<.001) per psychosocial well-being index point.The psychosocial well-being index provides a measure of psychosocial wellbeing and helps predict sick leave in the workplace. This new indicator could be used to analyze the association between psychosocial well-being and other health outcomes.

    Keywords: Psychosocial factors, Sick Leave, structural equation modelling, psychosocial well-being, Wittyfit

    Received: 14 Feb 2024; Accepted: 10 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Colin-Chevalier, Pereira, Dewavrin, Cornet, Baker and Dutheil. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Rémi Colin-Chevalier, CNRS, LaPSCo, Physiological and Psychosocial Stress, Université Clermont Auvergne, Occupational and Environmental Medicine, CHU Clermont-Ferrand, Clermont-Ferrand, France

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