Introduction:

To understand the sick leave situation and the causes and effects of a temporary loss of capacity to work allows for the strengthening of policies and management in the provision of health services.

Objective:

To analyze sick leave in Colombia in the 2016-2018 period.

Materials and methods:

A retrospective cross-sectional observational study and the relative risk was calculated. Sick leave reports were provided by the Ministry of Health and Social Protection. 12,410,837 reports from formal workers between the ages of 18-70 years and had at least one temporary disability were processed.

Results:

The average age of people with sick leave was 37.11 years, 53% corresponding to females. On average, sick leave was 90.6% and 5.6% for dependent and independent workers, respectively. The principal causes of disability were musculoskeletal diseases and were more likely in men and adults according to RR. Men in comparison to females and adults in comparison to youths are less likely to have sick leave due to respiratory disease.

Conclusions:

In Colombia, females presented more temporary sick leave, even if males had more days of disability, even though the median was three days in both genders. Youth and adults had more sick leave days.

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