Objective: To evaluate the results of a programme of intervention into the monitoring of short-term unfitness for work of members of the Special Sea Regime at Cádiz during 1997.
Design: Quasi-experimental intervention study with a pre- and post-intervention group, formed by the doctors from the Instituto Social de la Marina (ISM) at Cádiz.
Setting: Primary care, 1997.
Participants: 21 doctors carrying out their health-care duties in the ISM clinics.
Intervention: Activities aimed at the doctors, seeking to highlight the need to protect workers suffering incapacitating pathologies.
Measurements and main results: In January the indices of those off work were similar (2.38 in January 1996, and 2.39 in January 1997). Then the differences widened, with September 1997 (2.42) marking the biggest difference with the same month in 1996 (1.44). However, the mean length of the periods of time off was greater in 1997 than in 1996. The number of sick certificates processed in 1997 (1233) was less than in 1996 (1326). But the opposite occurred with notes for return to work (1209 in 1996 and 1311 in 1997). The mean duration of the period of time signed off increased after the intervention.
Conclusions: A quantitative change in the indicators of management of short-term unfitness for work occurred.