Measuring the Indirect Cost of Illness Using EQ-5D-5L While Accounting for Job Characteristics

BackgroundThe EQ-5D-5L questionnaire is used to measure treatment effects on the quality of life. For cost-utility analyses, EQ-5D-5L profiles are assigned numbers representing societal preferences (index weights). On the cost side, the indirect costs are frequently included: the value of product lost due to illness-related absences (absenteeism) or diminished productivity (presenteeism). The possibility to use EQ-5D data to estimate absenteeism and presenteeism (A&P) would be useful, if real-world data on A&P are lacking. However, beyond-health factors may also matter for A&P.ObjectiveWe aimed to assess how A&P depend on the EQ-5D-5L profile, while accounting for job characteristics (e.g. remote or in-office).MethodsWe surveyed 756 employed Poles. Respondents reported their job characteristics and evaluated the impact of eight hypothetical EQ-5D-5L profiles on A&P (two blocks of states used). Econometric modelling was used to establish the determinants of A&P.ResultsBoth A&P increase with health problems as indicated across EQ-5D-5L dimensions (especially mobility and self-care), and this impact differs from the impact on index weight (e.g. pain/discomfort barely impact the A&P). The job characteristics mattered: absenteeism decreases in sedentary occupations and increases in those occupations performed remotely or requiring cooperation, while presenteeism increases in jobs performed remotely and decreases for those requiring creative thinking.ConclusionsThe entire EQ-5D-5L profile, not just index weights, should be used to estimate A&P. That job characteristics matter may be relevant in applications, as some diseases concentrate in specific subgroups.

Automated summary

This study aimed to assess the impact of job characteristics on health-related absenteeism and presenteeism. It found that health problems were associated with both absenteeism and presenteeism, and job characteristics had different effects on these outcomes.