Health-Related Absence from Work Among Blue- and White-Collar Workers: The Role of Physical and Sensory Limitations and Social Support
İkram Yusuf Yarbaşı*, Mehmet Emirhan Kula**, Nagehan Öner***, Murat Taş****, Gülşen Hatice Gedik*****
Assoc. Prof. Dr., Erzurum Technical University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. *
Assoc. Prof. Dr., Erzurum Technical University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. **
Independent Researcher, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.***
Prof. Dr. San Antonio College, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.****
PhD Student, Erzurum Technical University, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. *****
Abstract: This study examines health-related work absences in Türkiye by focusing on physical and sensory limitations and social support. Using TURKSTAT 2022 Turkey Health Survey data, the sample was limited to 9,069 employed individuals aged 15 and over. The blue-collar/white-collar distinction was established through ISCO-08 main occupational groups; physical and sensory limitations and social support were calculated as composite indices. Since the occurrence and duration of health-related absences may follow distinct dynamics, a two-stage hurdle model was adopted: binary logistic regression in the first stage and zero-truncated negative binomial regression in the second. Findings show that physical limitations and chronic disease burden significantly increase both the probability of absence and the number of absence days. Sensory limitations have a weaker and specification-dependent association, whereas social support is not statistically significant in the main models. No evidence indicates that the association between limitations and absenteeism differs between blue-collar and white-collar workers. The findings suggest that workplace health protection practices should not be limited to physically demanding jobs but should prioritize chronic disease management and support for physical functioning.
Keywords: Blue-collar/white-collar, physical limitation, sensory limitation, social support, absenteeism, disability model