13 / 94
Summary
11
Summary
Physicians’ sickness certification of women
and men
The Swedish Social Insurance Inspectorate (Inspektionen för social-
försäkringen, ISF) is an independent supervisory agency for the
Swedish social insurance system. The objectives of the agency are
to strengthen compliance with legislation and other statutes, and to
improve the efficiency of the social insurance system through system
supervision and efficiency analysis and evaluation.
The ISF’s work is mainly conducted on a project basis and is
commissioned by the Government or initiated autonomously by
the agency. This report has been initiated by the agency.
Background
In a previous study, the ISF found that physicians prescribed longer
sick leave for men than for women in the first medical sickness
certificate in an episode of sickness benefit. However, there is
a lack of knowledge as to whether this gender difference is due to
differences in diagnosis behind the episodes of sick leave for women
and men.
This is the second report on the ISF’s scrutiny of physician’s sickness
certification. The first report was published in April 2014.
11
ISF 2014:5. The importance of medical sickness certificates for sick leave: a register study
of certificates submitted to the Swedish Social Insurance Agency, pp. 11–14.