The Status of Presenteeism Among Clinical Nurses in China: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

With the evolution of healthcare, the demand for medical services is rising. Nurses, facing high workloads and job indispensability, are at risk of presenteeism due to health issues, which impairs their focus and productivity. Nursing is a high-risk, high-stress profession, and compared to other medical personnel, nurses are more susceptible to presenteeism. Presenteeism can have severe consequences for nursing staff, the quality of care, and healthcare institutions. Although previous studies have explored the prevalence of presenteeism among nurses, there are variations in reported data due to differences in regions and assessment tools, and there is a scarcity of meta-analyses specifically addressing the prevalence of presenteeism among Chinese nurses. The study systematically assesses the incidence rate of presenteeism among nurses and evaluates the impact of various factors, including gender, marital status, department, professional title, position, education level, and employment relationship, on the incidence rate of presenteeism. Systematic review and meta-analysis. The following databases were searched: China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang Database, VIP Database, China Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, CINAHL, and PsycINFO. The search covered all literature published before June 15, 2024. Researchers independently conducted all literature screening, quality assessment, and data extraction and analysis. The average scores and standard deviations of the Chinese version of the Health and Productivity Loss (SPS-6) scale were pooled using Stata 14.0 with a random-effects meta-analysis. Finally, subgroup analysis was employed to explore the sources of heterogeneity between studies. In this systematic review and meta-analysis, a total of 26 studies were included, involving 12,366 clinical nurses from China. Our findings indicate that the overall average score for absenteeism was 16.48 (95% CI: 15.64–17.32). Furthermore, subgroup analysis revealed that female nurses, married nurses, those with the title of nurse practitioner, clinical nurses, those with a secondary vocational education, contract nurses, and nurses from the ICU had higher presenteeism scores. The level of presenteeism among clinical nurses in China is moderate. Female nurses, married nurses, those with the title of nurse practitioner, clinical nurses, nurses with a secondary vocational education, contract nurses, and those from the ICU exhibit more pronounced presenteeism. These findings may provide a theoretical basis for hospital managers to address and manage presenteeism. PROSPERO number: CRD42024557555.