Assessing the Relationship Between Chronic Health Conditions and Productivity Loss Trajectories

OBJECTIVE To examine the relationship between health conditions and the risk for membership in longitudinal trajectories of productivity loss. METHODS Trajectories of productivity loss from the ages of 25 to 44 years, previously identified in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79), were combined with information on health conditions from the age 40 years health module in the NLSY79. Multinomial logistic regression was used to examine the relative risk of being in the low-risk, early-onset increasing risk, late-onset increasing risk, or high-risk trajectories compared with the no-risk trajectory for having various health conditions. RESULTS The trajectories with the greatest probability of productivity loss longitudinally had a greater prevalence of the individual health conditions and a greater total number of health conditions experienced. CONCLUSIONS Health conditions are associated with specific longitudinal patterns of experiencing productivity loss.