Many days off due to depression

„depression Atlas“: More sick leave due to depression

31/01/2015

Depression is the second most common reason for sick leave among workers in Germany. This is from the „depression Atlas“ the Techniker Krankenkasse (TK), which was recently presented. Only due to colds, even more missing days.

Depression second to sick leave
The „widespread disease“ Depression is increasingly becoming an economic problem in Germany as well. It is increasingly the reason someone gets sick. Only due to colds even more workers stay away from work in Germany. To this result comes the „depression Atlas“ the Techniker Krankenkasse (TK) which was presented recently. Accordingly, accounted for 7.1 percent of all reported absence days to this disease. As the new TK-Atlas shows, but apparently not all professions are equally affected.

Every fifth German citizen affected once in a lifetime
According to the Foundation German Depressionshilfe, every fifth German citizen suffers from depression once in a while. The disease can manifest itself in a variety of symptoms. These include persistent depressed mood, lack of drive, loss of interest, fear and sadness. There are also various physical signs such as sleep disorders, dizziness, headache, shortness of breath or a so-called lump in the throat. In some cases, these are so pronounced that the typical mental symptoms are obscured and thus easily overlooked in practice. Unfortunately, depression is not an isolated case, instead it is now considered „widespread disease“ and is the most common mental illness ever.

Disease fundamentally limits life expectancy
Depressed people are usually more prone to suffering than many other patients because the disease fundamentally restricts their quality of life. Often, for example, those affected are no longer able to feel joy, instead an unbearable state is experienced, which in about 15 percent of the severe cases even leads to suicide. Accordingly, many sufferers already experience getting up in the morning as a real act of violence and work as one „mountain“, that does not seem to work.

„Germany is depressed“
As a result, depression leads to sick leave more and more often. This goes from the new „depression Atlas“ for which TK evaluated the sick leave of its 4.1 million eligible insured persons. According to him, absenteeism due to depression between 2000 and 2013 increased by almost 70 percent. At the same time, the share of the workforce (employees subject to social security contributions and ALG I recipients) who were prescribed antidepressants increased in the same period by a third to a total of six percent, reports the TK. „Germany is depressed“, writes the health insurance company with regard to the results: „Statistically, everyone was on sick leave one day due to depression“, so TK boss Jens Baas.

Lengthy illness leads to many days off
According to the study, depression still affects significantly fewer workers than colds or back pain (1.6 percent of sick leave) - „but those who hit it will be out for a very long time, on average 64 days“, Baas continues. „That is, it is a very tedious disease for the patient, associated with high downtime for the farms. In addition, considering the large medical care needs of patients, depression is also an economic factor.“
Employees in call centers particularly at risk
For a company with 250 employees, this means that an average of four of its employees would be missing a good two months a year, the report says. If, in addition, the inclusion of the leave entitlement came about, then at least one job due to depression would be canceled. But not every job is affected equally here according to the TK study. Instead, especially people in industries with high stress levels and mental stress are particularly vulnerable. Often, therefore, people suffering from work in the call center (2.8 days), in geriatric care (2.5), in education (1.6) or in safety professions (1.4).

Women are more likely to get sick due to depression
Like Dr. Thomas Grobe from the AQUA (Institute for Applied Quality Assurance and Research in the Health Care System) reports that in the analysis of the data for the TK a difference between the sexes became clear: „[...] Women are on average more than 1.3 days more ill-written due to depression than men with an average of 0.8 days.“ The absenteeism would also increase significantly with increasing age - from the age of 60 years, however, the values ​​are declining again, the expert continued. In addition, the TK had for the first time also the sick leave due to depression at the local level evaluated. The result: While there was the highest absenteeism rate in Merzig-Wadern (Saarland) with an average of 1.7 days lost per day, the researchers found the best mental health in Greiz in Vogtland (0.2 depression-related days lost).

Absence alone only limited meaningful
However, according to the TK could be concluded from the absences only conditionally, such as „loaded“ the land is real, because „not everyone who has depression is on sick leave, "explains York Scheller, a psychologist at the TK. Accordingly, the antidepressant prescriptions were also evaluated, which showed that, for example, Birkenfeld (Rhineland-Palatinate) despite below-average absence (minus 48 percent Stress and mental stress at work were identified as a cause of depression, as the TK said, it was not laws but appreciation, the reconciliation of family and work and healthy balance is the best preventive measure, but there are other preventive measures, such as health professionals regularly calling for longer recovery periods, better overtime compensation and better health promotion to prevent the on-going stress at work, and for workers to use different methods n for stress relief, such as yoga or autogenic exercise. (no, ad)