Objective To explore the impacts of working population's health on productivity.
Methods A questionnaire survey was conducted to collect information on health status and related productivity impairment in all employees of 8 enterprises and institutions by a cluster sampling strategy in Shanghai.
Results The proportions of four categories of health self-assessment (very well, well, general and poor or very poor) were 14.62%, 31.72%, 48.69% and 4.97% respectively. The percentage of those with poor psychological well-being (WHO-5 scores less than 13) was 52.83%. The proportions of having none, one or more than two types of chronic diseases were 51.66%, 27.87% and 17.87% respectively. The productivity impairment in dices, i.e. percentage of impairment while working due to health (PIH), percentage of over all work impairment due to health (POH), percentage of activity impairment due to health (PAH), except percentage of work time missed due to health (PWH), were negatively associated with the health self-assessment, 20% fall for each grade (P<0.01). The index (PIH, POH, PAH except PWH) of those with poor psychological well-being reached 30%, 10% higher than that of those with good psychological well-being (P<0.01). PIH and POH of those having more-than-one chronic disease also achieved 30%.
Conclusion The poor health status of the studied population, with over 53% self-assessed as general and poor or very poor, demonstrates negative impacts on productivity in all categories including health self-assessment, psychological health, as wells as having chronic diseases or not. It is necessary to strengthen health promotion in target population to control productivity impairment.
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