Productivity-related costs seriously impact full cost of health conditions
Health and productivity as a business strategy. Loeppke R, Taitel M, Richling D, Parry T, Kessler RC, Hymel P, Konicki D. J Occup Environ Med. 2007. 49: 712-721.
Aim
To determine the magnitude of health-related costs due to lost productive time relative to medical and pharmacy costs.
Looked at
15,380 employees from four US-based companies who completed the Health and Work Performance Questionnaire.
How?
Data from the productivity questionnaire were compared with medical and pharmacy cost data.
Results
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The costs related to lost productivity alone were more than four times higher than medical and pharmacy costs combined.
Health conditions driving medical and pharmacy costs
Health conditions driving productivity costs
Health conditions driving combined costs for medical, pharmacy and productivity
Cancer (except skin cancer)
Fatigue
Back/neck pain
Back/neck pain
Depression
Depression
Coronary heart disease
Back/neck pain
Fatigue
Other chronic pain
Sleeping problems
Other chronic pain
High cholesterol levels
Other chronic pain
Sleeping problems
(except pain due to arthritis, back/neck problems, headache and migraine)
What does this mean?
Measuring only medical, pharmacy or productivity costs neglects a large portion of health-related costs. The full cost impact of health conditions to an organisation emerges only when medical, pharmacy, and productivity costs are combined.