Association between Emotional Labor and Work Absence Due to Dental Treatment in Korean Workers

Background: The prevalence of service-oriented roles in the contemporary workplace has led to an increased demand for employees to engage in emotional labor to navigate the challenges of a service-oriented economy. This study aimed to examine the association between emotional labor and work absence due to dental treatment and assess the role of various factors between emotional labor and work absence due to dental treatment. Methods: Four hundred and eighty-three workers participated in this survey. Work absence was an outcome variable, and emotional labor was an independent variable. Logistic regression analyses were performed to find the association between emotional labor and work absence due to dental treatment controlling for age, sex, and education. The impacts of mediators (work type, employment type, and stress) were also assessed. Furthermore, the association between emotional labor and absenteeism due to dental treatment was assessed according to the stress level. Results: Emotional labor was associated with a 1.75 times higher risk of absenteeism due to dental treatment (95% confidence interval 1.04∼2.83) across adjusted models among Korean workers. The impact of stress was the highest among the mediators. Despite the non-statistical significance of the results, it was observed that elevated stress levels were correlated with increased dental absenteeism due to emotional labor. Conclusion: The findings of this study indicate that the performance of emotional labor is associated with an increased prevalence of absenteeism due to dental treatment. High stress levels may result in even higher rates of absenteeism among Korean workers.