Every second person goes to work despite illness

Every second person is under constant pressure and is in the workplace despite illness

26/02/2013

Every second German feels permanently under pressure and stressed, just as many have dragged themselves sick to work many a day. Over 75 percent of people feel that the mountain of work ahead of them is growing and growing. These are the results of a novel stress level check carried out by the Siemens Health Insurance SBK.

Too much negative stress and the resulting diseases currently determine the news world. The burdens are increasing, but awareness is also increasing. In recently presented by the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety „Stress Report Germany 2012“ More than 40 percent of German employees state that their workload has noticeably increased over the past two years. The health insurance companies are also sounding the alarm because the number of sick days due to burnout is increasing rapidly. According to figures from the BKK Federal Association, these have increased 18-fold within eight years. SBK is steering this development and raising awareness of symptoms through its stress level check. And with success: More than 4,000 users have determined their stress level with the help of the test.

„The new online test allows a dynamic differentiation of the areas 'stress'´, 'Burnout´ and 'depression´“, Carolin Brenner, health expert at the SBK. „He is also completely anonymous and offers in the evaluation, which receives the participant immediately as a PDF file, not only an overview of the current state, but also references to supportive offers of SBK“.

Results of the stress level check at a glance
The first results, which pulls the quality assurance institute medicaltex from the stress test, confirm the alarming results from other investigations: only 5.6 per cent of the participants did not feel stressed at all - more than half (55.4 per cent), however, quite often or even the Most of the time. 46.4 percent said they worked overtime regularly; 73.2 percent that the work has become more and more. Whole 78.6 percent were frequently interrupted and disturbed in their work. 18.8 percent went to work regularly last year even though they were ill; At least 50.4 percent did so sometimes.

Carolin Brenner: „The numbers of the stress level check and above all the active participation indicate that there is actually a need, but also that the awareness of one's own mental health is increasing. That's exactly what we want to support. Only those who are aware of their own stress can recognize warning signals at an early stage and counteract them effectively“.

The stress level check is a product of medicaltex GmbH, an institute for quality assurance from Munich. It was developed in collaboration with experts in psychiatry, psychotherapy and medicine. The test is free and takes a maximum of ten minutes. The evaluation is anonymous, a conclusion to individual persons is in any way possible. (Pm)

Picture: Gerd Altmann