Abstract
Introduction Chronic diseases are associated with productivity loss costs due to sickness absence. It is not always clear, however, which chronic diseases in particular are involved with how many sickness days and associated costs. Objective To determine the prevalence, additional days of sickness absence, and associated costs of chronic diseases among the Dutch working population from 2007 to 2011. Methods Prevalence of chronic diseases and additional days of sickness absence were derived from the Netherlands Working Conditions Survey (NWCS) from 2007 to 2011. The cost of each sickness absence day was based on linked personal income data. We used multiple regression analysis to derive the unconfounded additional days of sickness absence due to each chronic disease. Results Annually, approximately 37 % of the Dutch working population reported some type of chronic physical or psychological disease. No clinically relevant changes in prevalence of specific chronic diseases were observed in the studied period, nor in the number of additional sickness absence days or associated costs. The national financial burden due to sickness absence associated with chronic musculoskeletal disorders amounted to €1.3 billion annually. Conclusions Chronic diseases result in substantial productivity loss due to sickness absence. Given the ageing population, the proposed increase in the state pension age and an increase in sedentary lifestyle and obesity, the prevalence of chronic diseases may be expected to rise. Coordinated efforts to maintain and improve the health of the working population are necessary to minimize socioeconomic consequences.
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Acknowledgments
This study was possible through part of government funds assigned to TNO (Grant Number 1300019215). We thank Statistics Netherlands (CBS) for supplying us with the data on the individual income of all NWCS respondents.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Compliance with Ethical standards
According to the Research involving Human Subjects Act (WMO), our study was not subject to an ethics review and did not need to include informed consent from the subjects, since the data were obtained from questionnaires that participants returned on a voluntary basis for scientific use and the results were presented anonymously at the group level. This study fulfilled all the requirements for test subject anonymity, and adhered to the Declaration of Helsinki.
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de Vroome, E.M.M., Uegaki, K., van der Ploeg, C.P.B. et al. Burden of Sickness Absence Due to Chronic Disease in the Dutch Workforce from 2007 to 2011. J Occup Rehabil 25, 675–684 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10926-015-9575-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10926-015-9575-4