OBJECTIVE To explore methodological refinements in measuring health-related lost productivity and to assess the business implications of a full-cost approach to managing health. METHODS Health-related lost productivity was measured among 10 employers with a total of 51,648 employee respondents using the Health and Work Performance Questionnaire combined with 1,134,281 medical and pharmacy cla...

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study is to assess the magnitude of health-related lost productivity relative to medical and pharmacy costs for four employers and assess the business implications of a "full-cost" approach to managing health. METHODS A database was developed by integrating medical and pharmacy claims data with employee self-report productivity and health information collected ...

The cost of firearm injuries in the United States in 1990 was an estimated $20.4 billion. This includes $1.4 billion for direct expenditures for health care and related goods, $1.6 billion in lost productivity resulting from injury-related illness and disability, and $17.4 billion in lost productivity from premature death. While these are the best available national estimates, it is likely that...

BACKGROUND In previous studies, productivity losses have been measured specifically due to psoriasis or generally due to health problems in psoriasis patients. There is no information on the proportion of health related productivity losses that are due to psoriasis. The aim of this study was to estimate the proportion of productivity losses due to psoriasis and due to other medical problems amo...

BACKGROUND: Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a chronic incapacitating illness that affects between 400,000 and 800,000 Americans. Despite the disabling nature of this illness, scant research has addressed the economic impact of CFS either on those affected or on the national economy. METHODS: We used microsimulation methods to analyze data from a surveillance study of CFS in Wichita, Kansas, a...

Product launch – an event when a new product debuts for production in a plant – is an important phase in product development. But launches disrupt manufacturing operations resulting in productivity losses. Using data from North-American automotive plants from years 1999-2007, we estimate that a product launch entails an average productivity loss of 12-15% at the plant level. This translates to ...