Do they determine that people just take more sick days because they need some level of privacy while they work or because they are actually are getting sick more often? I would think its the former, tbh
When you are in a more crowded office this mechanism doesn't kick in because, frankly, you likely hate them at least a bit, and that would explain the lower %.
Finally when packed in a chicken farm scenario, all these mechanisms go out of the window and the sheer amount of germs, noise, distraction and stress you're exposed to trumps every other factor, hence the highest reported (62%) value.
Yeah, I too think this could explain it better. Say a work day is 8 hours, ideally, you cannot work on the same thing for 8 hours. But an open-plan office forces you to do this, or pretend to, because you are being "watched"...and this can be exhausting.
A cellular office plan, gives you the privacy to relax, and maybe do something else, then say when you feel refreshed, you get back to working.
An open-office plan encourages collaboration, but that's based on the assumption that we all work the same way.
They always say that but from my observation this is simply not true.
It's cheaper, and more of a panopticon for the floor-walky managers. It encourages the creation of a projected isolation shell, like some kind of psychic box turtle. Noise-cancelling headphones are essential to that effort.
When I actually collaborate, I am far more likely to do it if I can do it privately with a specific person, rather than with everyone who may be listening.
"Sick leaves were self-reported ... as number of short and long (medically certified) sick leaves... A significant excess risk for sickness absence was found only in terms of short sick leaves." Which supports your hypothesis.
That's not an either-or question. It could very plausibly be both. More people in a room means more potential for infections.