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- Title
Productivity losses attributable to headache, and their attempted recovery, in a heavy-manufacturing workforce in Turkey: implications for employers and politicians.
- Authors
Selekler, H.; Gökmen, Gürsel; Alvur, T.; Steiner, Timothy
- Abstract
Background: Headache disorders cause substantial productivity losses through absenteeism and impaired effectiveness at work (presenteeism). We had previously found these losses to be high in a mostly male, heavy-manufacturing workforce at Ford Otomotiv Sanayi AŞ (FO), in north-western Turkey. Here we aimed to confirm this finding in a year-long study to eliminate any effect of seasonal variation. The question then was how much of this lost productivity could be recovered by the effective provision of headache care. Methods: We used the HALT-30 Index to estimate productivity losses, surveying FO's entire workforce ( N = 7,200) during annual health-checks provided by the company's on-site health clinic. Then we established, and widely advertised, a headache clinic within the same health clinic, providing specialist care free for 15 months. Outcome measures were HALT-30, company sickness records and the HURT questionnaire. Results: Usable data were collected from 5,916 employees (82.2 %; 5,485 males [92.7 %], 431 females [7.3 %]; mean age 32.5 ± 5.4 years). One-month headache prevalence was 45.4 % ( n = 2,688). Productivity losses were reported by 968 employees (16.4 %) and, per affected employee, increased from 0.23 to 7.56 days/month as headache frequency increased ( P <0005). Employees reporting headache on ≥15 days/month ( n = 64; 1.1 %) accounted for 21.1 % of productivity losses, those with headache on 10-14 days ( n = 104; 1.8 %) another 18.5 %. With increasing headache frequency, absenteeism/presenteeism ratio (overall 1:16) declined from about 1:4 to about 1:25 in those with headache on ≥10 days/month. Headache frequency and lost productivity were higher in females than males ( P <0.0005). Both absenteeism and presenteeism rates declined after age 34 years ( P <0.0005). Only 344 employees with headache (12.8 %) requested appointments, and only 211 (7.8 %) actually consulted. Attendance was related to headache frequency ( P <0.0005). Too few returned for follow-up to allow useful outcome assessment. Conclusion: The high productivity losses in this young mostly male workforce correlated with but were not wholly explained by headache frequency. A small minority of employees with high-frequency headache contributed highly disproportionately to the productivity losses. These should be the target of interventions aimed at productivity recovery. It is not clear what form such interventions should take: making headache care optimally available is not of itself sufficient.
- Subjects
TURKEY; HEADACHE diagnosis; PAIN diagnosis; CELEBRITIES; STATISTICAL correlation; COST control; LABOR productivity; LABOR supply; MANAGEMENT; MEDICAL care costs; T-test (Statistics); WORLD health; MANUFACTURING industries; DATA analysis; DATA analysis software; DESCRIPTIVE statistics; MANN Whitney U Test
- Publication
Journal of Headache & Pain, 2015, Vol 16, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
1129-2369
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1186/s10194-015-0579-4