Press Release

Association between place of dental check-ups and work absenteeism among Japanese workers

July 11, 2023

Abstract

Objectives
Dental check-ups at the workplace provide the opportunity for early detection of dental diseases. Dental check-ups during working hours could reduce the number of days of absence from work due to visits to dental clinics outside the workplace. Although health check-ups are provided to workers in Japan, dental check-ups is not mandatory. This study aimed to determine the association between the place of dental check-ups and absenteeism due to visits to the dental clinic.


Methods
This cross-sectional study used data from an online self-reported worker survey conducted for 2 weeks in March 2017. We applied linear regression analysis with robust variance to determine the association between the place of dental check-ups and absenteeism due to dental clinic visits while adjusting for sociodemographic, health, and oral health covariates.


Results
The average age of the 3930 participants was 43.3 ± 11.7 years, and 52.3% were male. The number of days of absenteeism due to dental clinic visits in the past year for those who received check-ups only at the dental clinic and at the workplace were 0.57 ± 2.67 days and 0.21 ± 1.20 days, respectively. After adjusting for covariates, it was found that those who received dental check-ups at the workplace had 0.35 (95% CI, 0.12–0.58) fewer days of absence than those who received dental check-ups at the dental clinic.


Conclusion
Workers who received dental check-ups at the workplace were associated with fewer days of absence due to dental visits than those who received at the dental clinic.

Journal Article

JOURNALJournal of Occupational Health

TITLE:Association between Place of Dental Check-ups and Work Absenteeism among Japanese Workers

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/1348-9585.12415

Correspondence to

Takashi Zaitsu, Assistant Professor

Department of Oral Health Promotion,
Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, 
Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU)
E-mail:zaitsu.ohp(at)mri.tmd.ac.jp

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