Employees who take extended sick days from work may be at higher risk of passing away sooner that their co-workers, a report published online on Oct. 2 in the British Medical Journal suggests.

People who are in the situation of taking extended sick days more than once in a three-year period, especially if the absence is caused by surgical procedures, circulatory or psychiatric problems, are exposed to a greater risk of premature death, compared to their colleagues, said researchers at University College London.

In the study, the absence records of 6,478 British civil servants between 1985 and 1988 were examined. According to the British Medical Journal, researchers’ aim was spotting any links to death until 2004.

It was found that, as medically certified absence rates (stretches of more than seven days) increased, the number of deaths also increased. About 30 percent of individuals of both sexes who had at least one medically certified absence of at least seven days in three years had a 66 percent augmented risk of dying, in contrast with those with no such absence.

Employees who took extensive sick leave due to a psychiatric diagnosis at least once also had a 2.5 times increase in deaths caused by cancer. Another finding of the study suggests that workers taking extended sick days attributable to musculoskeletal problems were not exposed to an increased risk of death.

Furthermore, employees taking sick leave because of suffering from psychiatric diseases were about twice as likely to die too early. And the risk of death was more than two times higher for those with a surgical diagnosis.