Full-time U.S. workers who have chronic health troubles or are overweight cost more than $153 billion in lost productivity each year, according to a Gallup-Healthways study released Monday.
Those conditions result in an estimated 450 million additional days of work each year compared to healthy workers. Only about 14 percent full-time U.S. workers are of "normal" weight and have no chronic illnesses, the study says.
That's a big difference from our neighbors across the pond. The $153 billion in annual lost productivity costs linked to those unhealthy workers in the United States is more than four times the cost in Britain. That's partly because twenty percent of workers in Britain are healthy, the report says.
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Gallup surveyed 109,875 full-time workers—those who work at least 30 hours per week—between Jan. 2 and Oct. 2. The survey had a margin of error of up to plus or minus 1.7 percentage points.
Chronic health conditions were categorized as being overweight or obese; having ever been diagnosed with a heart attack, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, cancer, diabetes, asthma, or depression; and recurring physical pain in the neck or back or knee or leg in the last 12 months. Gallup calculated unhealthy days using respondents' answer to the question, "During the past 30 days, for about how many days did poor health keep you from doing your usual activities?"
Workers who are of an above-normal weight and have three or more chronic health conditions report a significantly higher average of 3.51 unhealthy days per month—about 42 days per year.
"The high percentages of full-time U.S. workers who have less than ideal health are a significant drain on productivity for U.S. businesses," the report says. "However, employees and employers have the opportunity to potentially increase productivity if they address the health issues that are currently plaguing the workplace."
The $153 billion in lost productivity estimated in this analysis would increase if it included presenteeism, which is when employees go to work but are less productive in their jobs because of poor health or wellbeing.
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