Aim: The aim of the present study was to carry out a systematic literature review of all scientific studies on sickness absence among women and men in the police in order to obtain a knowledge base for the introduction of relevant preventive actions against the high sick-leave rates among police women in Sweden.
Methods: Publications with data on sickness absence in the police published in peer-reviewed scientific journals in English, Danish, Norwegian or Swedish were systematically searched for in literature databases and reference lists. Identified publications were assessed for relevance. A set procedure was used to extract information from each study included.
Results: The majority of the 21 included articles were from the USA or Europe. Most studies were published from 1990 and onwards. Sick-leave measures used in the different studies varied considerably. Four studies presented overall data on sickness absence by gender: three found higher rates among female officers than among male officers, and one found similar rates. Results also varied for more specific aspects.
Conclusions: The research on sickness absence in the police is very scarce, especially concerning gender differences. The sick-leave measures used were too inconsistent or vaguely described to allow comparisons between studies. There was a tendency for higher sickness absence among women police; however, there is an obvious need for more studies in this area.