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Surprise! Depression Affects Productivity
By Heidi | May 29, 2007
Depression has the single largest negative effect on productivity and healthcare costs, according to a study conducted by pharmaceutical company Eli Lily. This effect is magnified when depression is accompanied by fatigue, sleep problems, anxiety, and other co-factors.
Among the most prevalent physical and mental conditions, depression had the largest negative effect on overall work performance, followed by fatigue, anxiety, chronic sleeping problems, obesity. Painful conditions also had large effects. However, when the effect of each condition was examined while controlling for comorbid depression, the independent effect of the condition was diminished. This suggests that the other conditions examined in this study have their biggest impact on work performance when they occur with depression.
At one of the companies, depression in the absence of anxiety or fatigue/sleep disturbance was associated with a 3.5 percent reduction in the presenteeism score, equivalent to seven to eight full-time workdays per year. Depression with anxiety or fatigue/sleep disturbance was associated with larger negative effects (6-8 percent reduction in average presenteeism score), and having depression with both anxiety and fatigue/sleep problems was associated with a 13.2 percent reduction.
Employees experiencing depression had average annual costs in excess of both employer sample averages ($4,132 and $3,504 compared to $3,286 and 2,653, respectively). Employees who reported experiencing fatigue or sleep problems with depression had significantly higher average annual costs than those with depression alone ($6,665 and $5,306). (All results noted above statistically significant, p<0.05). Although having anxiety with depression was associated with lower rating of work performance, direct healthcare costs were not significantly different from costs of employees with depression alone.
We have a vague idea of the solutions that Eli Lily might recommend.
I wonder how they would have ruled other factors (workplace conflicts, caregiving commitments, other medical conditions, etc.) to make the claim that depression affects productivity and healthcare costs more than anything else?
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