DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2017.v05i03.041

Pages: 912-919

The loss of work in agriculture related activities plays an important role in the productivity. The research or reports on the absenteeism due to sickness are limited and an effort has been made to find the sickness absenteeism in agriculture workers. The objective is to find the prevalence of sickness absenteeism and the determining factors among the agricultural workers in the Ramanagar district of Karnataka. A descriptive, cross sectional, quantitative and community based study conducted during October 2016 in the selected villages of Ramanagara district, Karnataka in population of 2051. Data was collected at the door steps by direct interview using pre designed, pilot tested semi open ended questionnaire. The data included the information on characteristics of the family, size, absent for work, reasons for absence for the past three months, and it was analysed in SPSS version 20. There were 778 and 736 male and female subjects in the study respectively, and prevalence of sickness absenteeism was 171 in males and 110 in females. The overall prevalence was 281 accounting to 18.6% and the median duration of absence was 3 days. Nearly 45 percent were absent for less than 3 days. The common reason for absence was musculoskeletal problems (31.1%), Fever (19.8%), CNS (11.7%) and others. The reasons were different for different age groups. The total duration of absence was 2091 days among 281 individuals in 1514 population. The common reasons for absence were musculoskeletal, fever and CNS related health problems. Most of the men aged less than 40 were absent for one or two days and 7 or more days among 51 years or above.