“Child-to-Teacher Ratio and Day Care Teacher Sickness Absenteeism”.

The purpose of this study is to examine the correlation between work pressure (measured by the child-adult ratio) and sickness (short and long-term absence due to illness) among pedagogical staff in Danish day nurseries and kindergartens.

Results of the quantitative analyses, in which the authors have most confidence, show that statistically there is generally no certain correlation between work pressure (measured by the child-adult ratio at municipal level) and long-term absence due to illness.

With regard to the causal relationship between work pressure and long-term absence due to illness, the study finds that there is a positive correlation between increased work pressure and short-term absence due to illness for day nursery staff. However, the statistical significance of this relationship is weak (10% level). The study finds no correlation for kindergarten staff.

The estimated causal relationships are generally not consistent across the three methods of analysis mentioned above.

The authors conclude that, even though the analyses do not show statistical evidence of a correlation between work pressure and sickness, they indicate a positive and statistically significant correlation for nursery staff in the period 2005-2006.

The data consists of the full population of pedagogical staff in Danish day nurseries and kindergartens in the period 2002-2006. The data was collected from Statistics Denmark registers. The dataset consists of a total of 20,000 individuals. The study had access to information about each individual's place of work, background information such as age and gender, as well as information about absence due to illness.

The data material was supplemented by several types of information. Work pressure was measured by the child-adult ratio. The child-adult ratio was calculated at municipal level. In addition, data was supplemented by information from the daycare centres, including data on the children's socio-economic background as well as the type of daycare centre (day nursery or kindergarten). About 53% of the staff could be linked to a specific daycare centre and group of children, and this 53% was included in the analysis.

The study elucidates the causal relationship between work pressure and sickness using several different quantitative analyses. Analyses are divided into short and long-term absence due to illness, as well as into day nursery and kindergarten.

Initially, the study uses simple regression, then regression that exploits the panel structure of the data. This means that the individual is monitored over time. Finally, the study elucidates the causal relationship through instrumental variable analysis.

Gørtz, M. & Andersson, M. (2014). “Child-to-Teacher Ratio and Day Care Teacher Sickness Absenteeism”. Health Economics, 23(12), 1430-1442.