Absenteeism Increase in mental illness

AOK Absences Report 2010: Increase in absenteeism due to mental illness. More and more people get sick because of mental suffering.

(09.07.2010) Due to mental illness like depression or burnout, more and more employees have to get sick. The number of mental illnesses in the workplace has steadily increased in recent years. This comes from a report of the Scientific Institute of the AOK (WIdO).

More and more stress and pressure in the workplace make people very likely to get sick more and more often. According to a scientific study by the AOK, mental health problems are responsible for about 50% of lost work days in around 8.6% of cases. On average, those affected are missing almost 23 days a year. Thus, the level of illness reaches a record level due to mental and emotional illnesses. The data from the AOK Absenteeism Report 2010 are based on analyzes of the approximately 9.7 million AOK insured persons and thus provide a fairly good average for all employees in Germany. There are differences depending on the workplace and industry. According to the report, garbage men were most often ill.

The level of mental illness was increased from 4.6 percent in 2008 to 4.9 percent in 2009 compared to the previous year. On average, employees were on sick leave 17.3 days on average. These results are based on measured sick leave rates of the employees subject to social security contributions of the 9.7 AOK members.

Meanwhile, mental suffering takes the 4th Rank of the most common causes of sick leave. Overall, the mental illness was responsible for 8.6 percent for sick leave of the AOK members. In 2008, it was still 8.3 percent. The mental illnesses are responsible for the longest absentee days in the workplace. Helmut Schröder from the AOK said: "Compared to other illnesses, however, they are often associated with long downtimes, with a respiratory illness an employee lacks an average of 6.5 days, with a mental illness it is almost 23 days".

The other results of the study are also of interest. According to the AOK report, older workers are less likely to be sick than their younger colleagues. However, older workers are sick longer. Women, on the other hand, are more often ill, but on average they are unable to work for shorter periods. Men are more likely to suffer from musculoskeletal disorders such as back pain and injuries, while women are more likely to suffer from respiratory problems and depression. Musculoskeletal disorders were responsible for most workplace outages (23 percent). This was followed by respiratory diseases (14 percent), acute injuries, e.g. in sports or work (12.3 percent) as well as mental illnesses such as depression or "burnout" (8.6 percent).

Overall, it can be observed that the number of mental illnesses is constantly increasing. Already the Federal Psychotherapeutic Chamber pointed out recently that sick leave due to mental illnesses by stress in the occupation since the nineties nearly doubled. The reasons are often poor working conditions, too low payment and time constraints. This leads to dissatisfaction, self-esteem and frustration, which in turn lead to mental illnesses such as depression. (Sb)

Also read:
Work stress: short breaks more effective
Burn out usually affects the committed
Depression increases physical pain?
Bremer go to work exhausted

Picture: tokamuwi