Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 May 15;22(1):978.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-022-13337-z.

Obesity- attributable costs of absenteeism among working adults in Portugal

Kelli Destri  1   2 , Joana Alves  3 , Maria João Gregório  4   5   6 , Sara Simões Dias  4   7 , Ana Rita Henriques  4   8 , Nuno Mendonça  4   8 , Helena Canhão  4   8   9 , Ana Maria Rodrigues  4   8   10
Affiliations

Obesity- attributable costs of absenteeism among working adults in Portugal

Kelli Destri et al. BMC Public Health. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Background: Obesity leads to poor health outcomes and may adversely affect work productivity. This study, aimed to investigate the obesity- attributable costs of absenteeism among working adults in Portugal.

Methods: The study population included individuals actively working at baseline from the Epidemiology of Chronic Diseases Cohort (EpiDoC), a large Portuguese population-based prospective study. Body mass index was measured at baseline and in two follow-up interviews. Absenteeism in each wave of the EpiDoC was assessed by the question "Did you have a sick leave in the previous 12 months? yes/no", followed by "How many days did you miss work due to sickness in the previous twelve months?". Body mass index (BMI) was classified into underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obese, based on the standard World Health Organization definition. Association between obesity and absenteeism was estimated with the negative binomial regression model adjusted for BMI, chronic diseases, and lifestyle. Obesity- attributable costs were calculated using lost gross income during the time absent from work, through the human-capital approach.

Results: The EpiDoC included 4338 working adults at baseline. Of these, 15.2% were obese at the beginning of the study and 22.7% of the population had been absent from work in the last 12 months. Participants with obesity missed 66% more days at work (IRR: 1.66; CI 95%:1.13-2.44; (p = 0.009.) than those with normal weight. The odds of having been absent from work were 1.4 times higher in obese compared to non-obese individuals (CI 95%: 1.18-1.67; p < 0.01) adjusted to sex and type of work. Obese individuals missed 3.8 more days per year than those with normal weight (95%CI: 3.1-4.5). Extrapolating to the entire Portuguese working population, absenteeism due to obesity incurred an additional cost of €238 million per year.

Conclusion: Obesity imposes a financial burden due to absenteeism in Portugal. Employers and national health regulators should seek effective ways to reduce these costs.

Keywords: Absenteeism; Cohort Studies; Costs; Obesity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flowchart describing the population eligible of the study
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Forest plot of crude and adjusted odds ratios (with 95% confidence intervals) from logistic regression analysis. Statistically significant result (*)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Cuschieri S, Mamo J. Getting to grips with the obesity epidemic in Europe. SAGE Open Med. 2016;4:2050312116670406. doi: 10.1177/2050312116670406. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. João Gregório M. Obesity as a Major Public Health Problem in Portugal: Achievements and Challenges. Port J Public Health. 2018;36(3):I-II.
    1. Hruby A, Hu FB. The epidemiology of obesity: a big picture. Pharmacoeconomics. 2015;33(7):673–689. doi: 10.1007/s40273-014-0243-x. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Marques A, Peralta M, Naia A, Loureiro N, de Matos MG. Prevalence of adult overweight and obesity in 20 European countries, 2014. Eur J Public Health. 2018;28(2):295–300. doi: 10.1093/eurpub/ckx143. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Gaio V, Antunes L, Namorado S, Barreto M, Gil A, Kyslaya I, et al. Prevalence of overweight and obesity in Portugal: Results from the First Portuguese Health Examination Survey (INSEF 2015) Obes Res Clin Pract. 2018;12(1):40–50. doi: 10.1016/j.orcp.2017.08.002. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types