Health Behaviours As a Mechanism in the Prospective Relation between Workplace Reciprocity and Absenteeism: A Bridge too Far ?

Background: The persistent lack of evidence on causal mechanisms between social capital and health threatens the credibility of the social capital—health association. The present study aims to address this ongoing problem by investigating whether health behaviours (i.e. smoking, alcohol consumption, and physical activity) mediate the prospective relation between workplace reciprocity and future sickness absence. Methods: A cohort of 24,402 Belgian employees was followed up during 12 months for sickness absence. Workplace reciprocity was measured with four indicators—colleague help, colleague interest, supervisor help, and supervisor concern. Three types of multilevel mediation models were applied. Results: Overall, workplace reciprocity negatively related to high sickness absence (≥ 10 days) mainly independently from health behaviours. Uniquely, colleague interest positively related to smoking (OR = 1.058, 95% CI = 1.019, 1.098) and smoking in turn, positively related to sickness absence (OR = 1.074, 95% CI = 1.047, 1.101). No behavioural pathways could be identified between company-level reciprocity and sickness absence, and company-level health-related behaviours did not mediate the relation between company-level reciprocity and individual sickness absence. Conclusions: These results suggest that both social capital and health behaviours are relevant for employee health, but health behaviours seem not to be the underlying explanatory mechanism between workplace reciprocity and health.