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Absenteeism due to mental illness reaches a new record level
Stress and high performance expectations are increasing more and more today. That has an impact on us all. The absentee days due to mental illness have reached a new high. Overall, however, employees in Germany were less likely to receive sick leave last year.
Absenteeism due to mental illness
According to health experts, every fourth person suffers from a mental disorder at some point in his life. The fact that the increasing work stress and pressure on performance does not pass us without a trace is shown, among other things, by the sick leave. Absenteeism due to mental illness has been increasing for years. According to a recent study by the Deutsche Angestellten-Krankenkasse (DAK), there have never been so many days off work due to mental illness as last year.
The absentee days due to mental illness reached a new high last year. However, the proportion of those affected decreased. The cases lasted longer. (Image: Osterland / fotolia.com) New high reached
As the health insurance company writes in a report, mental illnesses in 2016 with around 246 days lost per 100 insured were at their peak.
According to the figures, the number of days lost has more than tripled in the last 20 years (1997: 77 days). In particular, women were affected. Already last year, the DAK reported that women were almost twice as likely to be disabled as men due to depression and other mental illnesses.
The current analysis, for which the IGES Institute in Berlin evaluated the data of 2.6 million employed DAK insured persons for the year 2016, also showed that the total sickness rate dropped from 4.1 to 3.9 percent.
Illnesses take longer
Mental illness accounted for 17 percent of total sickness in 2016 - an increase of one percent over the previous year.
"While the days of absence reached an unprecedented level with around 246 days per 100 employees, the proportion of those affected declined slightly compared to the previous year," the experts write in the statement.
This means that although fewer people were missing due to mental illness in the job, the individual cases of illness lasted longer. According to the information, it was an average of 38 days (2015: 35 days).
The majority of days off were depression (114.4 per 100 insured), followed by 45.5 days of severe stress and adjustment disorders. Burn-out stagnated at 4.3 days.
Women were significantly more affected
It was found that women were diagnosed with around 60 percent more absenteeism due to mental illness than men (311 to 191 days lost per 100 insured persons).
For the first time, mental illness took first place in women, followed by musculoskeletal disorders with 308 days lost. As in the previous year, the number of men suffering from musculoskeletal disorders (329 days lost per 100 insured) was highest.
In total, more than half of all absenteeism in 2016 was attributable to three types of illness: first and foremost, back problems and other musculoskeletal disorders, which accounted for more than one in five days of absence (22 percent).
Sick leave higher in the east
This was followed by mental illnesses with a 17 percent share of the total sickness and runny nose and Co. with around 15 percent. The proportion of diseases of the respiratory system was therefore about two percentage points lower compared to the previous year, as there was no strong cold wave.
Overall, a sick leave lasted on average 12.9 days last year - 0.8 days longer than in the same period of the previous year. It was also found that the proportion of employees with at least one sick leave at 45 percent was as low as it was ten years ago.
As in 2015, it was shown that sick leave was higher in the eastern federal states (4.9 percent) than in the west (3.8 percent). This means that 28 percent more lost days were documented in the East than in the West (East: 1,784 days lost per 100 insured / West: 1390 days lost per 100 insured). (Ad)