The Burden of Illness of Employees on United States Employers: A Critical Review of the Literature
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Drug Infomarion Journal, Vol. 34, pp. 47-58, 2000 PrinIed in the USA. All rights reserved.
THE BURDEN OF ILLNESS OF EMPLOYEES ON UNITED STATES EMPLOYERS: A CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE* DEVIDASMENON,PHD Institute of Health Economics, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and Department of Public Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
LILAASSIFF,BSc Institute of Health Economics, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Diseases such as Alzheimer S disease, asthma, cardiovascular disease, depression, gastrointestinal disease, HIV/AIDS, infectious disease, and migraine cast a significant burden of employees on United States employers. The purpose of this study was to critically review published literature on the burden of diseases. The results indicate that there are very few studies published with data on the burden of illness on United States employers. Only 35 articles were found discussing indirect costs of illness such as absenteeism, productivity, short- or long-term disability (STD, LTD) and drug costs. Interpretation of these cost analyses is limited because of variation in methodology and measures between the studies. These include monetary and nonmonetary measures, obtained from different groups of patients using different techniques. Although the results confirm that these diseases have a signzjicant impact on employers, there is no standardized measure to quantitate this impact. The current state of the literature suggests that primary research studies should be conducted with large firms or organizations to determine the actual impact of employee illness. Key Words: Sick leave; Absenteeism; Cost of illness; Employer health costs; United States
more common in the peer-reviewed literature. While there were only 67 citations for such studies in the MEDLINE bibliographic database in 1988, in 1997, there were 647. Most of these have reported burden of illness from a societal or national perspective. Clearly, such a perspective is important from a government’s point of view, as it provides valuable information on potential future resource needs that a disease might create. At the same time, such studies could help focus the development activities for future products of multinational pharmaceutical companies.
INTRODUCTION OVER THE PAST FEW years, interest in determining the economic impact of specific diseases in various countries has soared. “Burden of illness” studies have become
*This work was supported by a grant from Glaxo-Wellcome Canada Inc. Reprint address: Devidas Menon, PhD, Institute of Health Economics, # 710-10665 Jasper Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T5J 3S9, e-mail: dmenon @ihe.ab.ca.
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Devidas Menon and Lila Assiff
Less attention has been paid in the litera- 3. Short-term disability, ture to the financial impact of individual dis- 4. Long-term disability, and eases on organizations. Disease in the work- 5. Drug costs. place can result in absence from work, time off due t
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