Loss of Working Life Years Due to Mortality, Sickness Absence, or Ill-health Retirement: A Comprehensive Approach to Estimating Disease Burden in the Workplace.

Yosuke Inoue,Maki Konishi,Takayuki Ogasawara,Seitaro Dohi,Tohru Nakagawa,Hiroko Okazaki,Toshiaki Miyamoto,Akiko Nishihara,Chihiro Nishiura,Makoto Yamamoto,Takeshi Kochi,Shuhei Nomura,Isamu Kabe,Tetsuya Mizoue,Akihiko Uehara,Makiko Shimizu,M Eguchi ,Koki Yamamoto ,Nozomu Sasaki ,Takeshi Honda ,Toshio Imai ,S Yamamoto ,Akihiro Hori

doi:10.2188/jea.je20190332

Abstract

BackgroundWhile much effort has focused on quantifying disease burden in occupational health, no study has simultaneously assessed disease burden in terms of mortality and morbidity. We aimed to propose a new comprehensive method of quantifying the disease burden in the workplace.MethodsThe data were obtained from the Japan Epidemiology Collaboration on Occupational Health (J-ECOH) Study, a large-scale prospective study of approximately 80,000 workers. We defined disease burden in the workplace as the number of working years lost among the working population during a 6-year period (April 2012 to March 2018). We calculated the disease burden according to consequences of health problems (ie, mortality, sickness absence [SA], and ill-health retirement) and disease category. We also calculated the age-group- (20–39 and 40–59 years old) and sex-specific disease burden.ResultsThe largest contributors to disease burden in the workplace were mental and behavioural disorders (47.0 person-years lost per 10,000 person-years of working years; ie, per myriad [proportion]), followed by neoplasms (10.8 per myriad) and diseases of the circulatory system (7.1 per myriad). While mental and behavioural disorders made a greater contribution to SA and ill-health retirement compared to mortality, the latter two disorders were the largest contributors to the disease burden in the workplace due to mortality. The number of working years lost was greater among younger versus older female participants, whereas the opposite trend was observed in males.ConclusionsOur approach is in contrast to those in previous studies that focused exclusively on mortality or morbidity.

Highlights

Employee health and well-being is one of the most important management issues, influencing employers and wider society
Mental and behavioural disorders (F00-F99) made the largest contribution to the total number of working years lost—47.0 per myriad, which was equivalent to 54.7% of the total disease burden, were lost to this disease category
The disease burden due to these disease groups was characterised as a higher contribution to disease burden associated with mortality vs disease burden associated with sickness absence (SA) or ill-health retirement (6.5 per myriad [95% CI, 5.9–7.3] for neoplasms and 4.0 per myriad [95% CI, 3.5–4.6] for diseases of the circulatory system)

Summary

Introduction

Employee health and well-being is one of the most important management issues, influencing employers and wider society. Addressing and prioritising health issues that contribute to the disease burden in the workplace would enhance the sustainability of business and society. Much effort has focused on quantifying the disease burden in occupational health using several indicators, such as years of potential life lost,[2,3,4] disability-adjusted working life years,[5] and economic costs.[6,7,8,9,10,11,12] For example, Hanly et al[6] estimated the disease burden associated with premature cancer deaths among adult employees by calculating the cost of lost productivity across 30 European countries. While much effort has focused on quantifying disease burden in occupational health, no study has simultaneously assessed disease burden in terms of mortality and morbidity. We aimed to propose a new comprehensive method of quantifying the disease burden in the workplace

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Discussion

Conclusion