Studies reveal that prolonged time of sickness absence reflects poor health and psychosocial factors in the workplace, such as bullying. Bullying causes sleeping problems and other coping strategies that contribute to sickness absence. Among workers, long-term sickness is associated with workplace bullying, but there is no association with cortisol levels.
Grynderup et al. (2017) found out that cortisol did not mediate the association between sickness absence and workplace bullying. Notably, high cortisol levels indicate the physiological stress response (Grynderup et al., 2017). Although high cortisol levels have been associated with depression, pain, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and anxiety, it does not contribute to sickness absence. Low cortisol levels in the morning and high cortisol levels in the evening lead to poor somatic health, but it does not cause mental problems. Bullied individuals have low diurnal cortisol circulating concentrations. However, adrenal insufficiency and reduced capacity in the production of cortisol remain unknown.
Researchers did not get a direct association between long-term sickness absence