Cost of temporary work disability due to musculoskeletal diseases in Spain.

OBJECTIVE To estimate the annual cost of temporary work disability (TWD) caused by musculoskeletal diseases (MSDs) in Spain and its variations between regions (autonomous communities: ACs) and paying institutions. METHOD Descriptive study of the costs of MSD-related TWD in ACs in 2007. The Spanish National Institute of Social Security (NISS) provided aggregate data. Extrapolations to the rest of the TWD payers (mutual societies and employers) were used. RESULTS MSDs were the leading cause of TWD in Spain in 2007, causing 908,781 episodes of TWD (18% of the total), 39,342,857 lost working days (23%), and a cost of 1,702 million euros (23%). The annual incidence of TWD episodes per 1,000 employed was 45. The cost per TWD process was 1,873 €, ranging from 1,391 € (La Rioja) to 2,429 € (Basque Country). CONCLUSION MSDs produce annually in Spain over 39 million days lost by TWD with a cost of over 1,700 million euros. Regions observed wide variations of the TWD cost.