Evaluating the economic impact of screening and treatment for depression in the workplace

Abstract

Depression is the most common psychiatric illness and cause of disability, and associated with durable impacts on productivity and represents one of the major causes of workplace absenteeism and presenteeism. Few studies, however, examine the economic impact of treatment of depression in the workplace, particularly from the perspective of the employer. We estimated the relative costeffectiveness of treatment for employees with depression in the workplace. We used a decisionanalytic model to estimate the relative cost-effectiveness of (i) psychotherapy, (ii) pharmacotherapy and (iii) combination of psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy and whether they reduce sickness, absenteeism and presenteeism for people with depression. Costs and savings to the employer were also estimated, and policy recommendations made about how best to translate this evidence into practice. Both pharmacotherapy treatment and psychotherapy treatment were found to be costsaving from the perspective of the employer. Psychotherapy was found to be the most cost-effective option with an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of €22,225. This study provides evidence that screening and treatment for depression in the workplace is cost-effective and represents a worthwhile investment from the business perspective.

Productivity estimation in economic evaluations of occupational health and safety interventions: a systematic review

“…The remaining 4 studies (4%) all used ad hoc approaches that (41, 45-48, 51, 56-58, 60, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70, 72-75, 79, 81, 83, 84, 87-90, 92, 93, 95, 97, 98, 100-102, 105, 107-110, 113, 117-125) North-America 34 (39, 40, 43, 44, 50, 52-55, 59, 61, 63, 65, 69, 71, 76, 80, 82, 85, 86, 91, 94, 96, 99, 103, 106, 111, 112, 114-116, 126- (39, 41, 42, 44, 45,49,50,(52)(53)(54)(55)59,60,67,68,70,71,76,77,82,87,95,115, 128) Inferred: 19 (40, 43, 46,57,61,63,65,80,86,91,92,94,96,103,111,116,(125)(126)(127)56,62,64,66,69,72,73,75,78,79,81,(83)(84)(85)…”

“…As indicated in table 3, a measure for absenteeism (sick leave, disability leave or other health-related time away from work) was included in 83 studies (92%), 3 of which combined two measurement methods (39,57,60). Of these 83 studies (or 86 measurements), 26 (31%) made use of firm data, 26 (31%) of employee surveys, 10 (12%) used information from previous studies, 9 (11%) insurance data, 3 (4%) simulated or assumed absenteeism, 3 (4%) used data from the healthcare provider, 3 (4%) from national databases, and 1 (1%) each used data from a private research company, compensation data, and an employer survey.…”

“…Measure for reduced productivity at work/ while working 31 (39, 41-44, 56, 60-65, 69, 70, 72, 77, 82, 87, 89, 94, 95, 98, 103, 104, 114, 115, 118, 119, 123, 124, 128) Source presenteeism Employee survey 18 (41, 44,56,62,64,69,72,82,87,89,94,95,98,104,115,118,119, 123) Simulated / assumptions 7 (39, 43, 44,103,114,124, 128) Previous studies 6 (42,60,61,63,65,70) Firm data 1 (115) Employer survey 1 (77) Survey/instrument presenteeism 56,62,69,82,94,95,118,119,123) Days (unspecified) 49 (39, 40, 42, 46,49,(51)(52)(53)(54)58,60,62,64,66,71,72,74,75,(77)(78)…”

“…A generic national or regional price weight was used in 13 studies (19%), 9 (13%) used a worker-specific weight, 3 (4%) the industry or company average, and 1 (1%) a job average with age differentiation. Variations -such as using the mean annual salary per staff member in the NHSL (47), the study group average (75, 100), or the national average (41, 45,48,56,60,62,64,(66)(67)(68)(69)(70)72,(83)(84)(85)87,89,93,95,97,99,103,107,(118)(119)(120)(121)(122)(123)(124) 47,63,65,74,(77)(78)(79)81,82,87,(100)(101)(102)108,109,112,114,117,(126)(127)(128) (48, 52, 53, 58, 65-67, 69,...…”

Psychophysical workload of workers in Slovenia

“…The major negative consequences of depression at the workplace are reduced productivity and high incidences of absenteeism and presenteeism (Evans-Lacko et al, 2016).…”