Abstract
Background:Influenza infection at the workplace poses an economic burden where it implicates the financial loss to the employer direct and indirectly. In the workforce, indirect financial loss is measured by a reduction in productivity due to absenteeism (sick day leaves) or presenteeism (ill but still working), contributing to the total cost burden. Influenza vaccination has shown promising benefits in reducing absenteeism and presenteeism in the workplace, with subsequent gains in reducing the employer's economic burden.
Objective: This study aimed to measure the absenteeism rate due to influenza-like illness (ILI) among influenza-vaccinated and non-vaccinated employees and the influenza vaccine effectiveness (VE) in reducing absenteeism due to ILI. It compared the rate of high-performance scores between the presenteeism cohort in both vaccinated and non-vaccinated groups due to ILI.
Design: A cross-sectional self-reported questionnaire survey was conducted among the study respondents drawn from a representative sample of clinical and non-clinical departments in a private hospital in 2018-2019. The selections include employees who have not been vaccinated and those voluntarily vaccinated.
Method: The rate of ILI was calculated by comparing the incidence of ILI among vaccinated and non-vaccinated respondents based on symptoms reported during the period of at least more than two weeks after vaccination for those vaccinated. The absenteeism rate was calculated by measuring the total numbers of reported sick leave due to ILI in both groups. In contrast, the performance score among the presenteeism cohort was measured by using a ranking performance scale 1 - 10 (poor to excellence) which was later subdivided into poor performance (1-3), moderate performance (4-6), and good performance (7-10). Vaccine effectiveness was then measured by calculating the percentage reduction in reported sick leaves due to ILI in the vaccinated group compared to the non-vaccinated group. Results: The study found that the proportion of vaccinated versus non-vaccinated groups was 63.0% (n=265) and 37.0% (n=156) respectively from 421 respondents. The overall rate of ILI in the study group was 28%. From this proportion, the vaccinated group showed better health performance with a lesser rate of ILI by 0.6 times. The total rate of absenteeism due to ILI was 14.2%. However, when comparing the vaccinated with the non-vaccinated, there was lesser absenteeism by 0.43 times with 3.9 times respectively, of lesser days loss. The mean days lost to ILI by those vaccinated was 2.33 ± 1.847 days, versus 3.905 ± 1.358 days among the non-vaccinated group. Presenteeism was also common in this study sample, with 49.2% presenting at the workplace despite having ILI symptoms. Using the performance score of 1-10 among the presenteeism cohort, the vaccinated group performed twice better than the non-vaccinated. In this study, influenza vaccination has the potential to reduce absenteeism by 84.8% vaccine effectiveness.
Conclusion: Implementing an influenza vaccination program in the workplace would reduce the burden of ILI financially and indirectly improve the productivity of an institution. It has a significant impact on reducing absenteeism and or presenteeism performance.
Links
- https://apcph.cphm.my/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/APCPH2022-O-31.pdf
- https://apcph.cphm.my/events/oral-session-7-ballroom-A/
BibTeX (Download)
@proceedings{APCPH2022-O-31,
title = {Influenza Vaccination: Reducing Absenteeism and Presenteeism at Workplace-a case study in a private hospital},
author = {Mohd Ab Hadi Hairan @ Tohiar and Safurah Jaafar and Tan Kok Leong and Azimatun Noor Aizuddin and Azrin Syahida Abd Rahim},
url = {https://apcph.cphm.my/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/APCPH2022-O-31.pdf
https://apcph.cphm.my/events/oral-session-7-ballroom-A/},
year = {2022},
date = {2022-08-01},
urldate = {2022-08-02},
issue = {7},
abstract = {Background:Influenza infection at the workplace poses an economic burden where it implicates the financial loss to the employer direct and indirectly. In the workforce, indirect financial loss is measured by a reduction in productivity due to absenteeism (sick day leaves) or presenteeism (ill but still working), contributing to the total cost burden. Influenza vaccination has shown promising benefits in reducing absenteeism and presenteeism in the workplace, with subsequent gains in reducing the employer's economic burden.
Objective: This study aimed to measure the absenteeism rate due to influenza-like illness (ILI) among influenza-vaccinated and non-vaccinated employees and the influenza vaccine effectiveness (VE) in reducing absenteeism due to ILI. It compared the rate of high-performance scores between the presenteeism cohort in both vaccinated and non-vaccinated groups due to ILI.
Design: A cross-sectional self-reported questionnaire survey was conducted among the study respondents drawn from a representative sample of clinical and non-clinical departments in a private hospital in 2018-2019. The selections include employees who have not been vaccinated and those voluntarily vaccinated.
Method: The rate of ILI was calculated by comparing the incidence of ILI among vaccinated and non-vaccinated respondents based on symptoms reported during the period of at least more than two weeks after vaccination for those vaccinated. The absenteeism rate was calculated by measuring the total numbers of reported sick leave due to ILI in both groups. In contrast, the performance score among the presenteeism cohort was measured by using a ranking performance scale 1 - 10 (poor to excellence) which was later subdivided into poor performance (1-3), moderate performance (4-6), and good performance (7-10). Vaccine effectiveness was then measured by calculating the percentage reduction in reported sick leaves due to ILI in the vaccinated group compared to the non-vaccinated group. Results: The study found that the proportion of vaccinated versus non-vaccinated groups was 63.0% (n=265) and 37.0% (n=156) respectively from 421 respondents. The overall rate of ILI in the study group was 28%. From this proportion, the vaccinated group showed better health performance with a lesser rate of ILI by 0.6 times. The total rate of absenteeism due to ILI was 14.2%. However, when comparing the vaccinated with the non-vaccinated, there was lesser absenteeism by 0.43 times with 3.9 times respectively, of lesser days loss. The mean days lost to ILI by those vaccinated was 2.33 ± 1.847 days, versus 3.905 ± 1.358 days among the non-vaccinated group. Presenteeism was also common in this study sample, with 49.2% presenting at the workplace despite having ILI symptoms. Using the performance score of 1-10 among the presenteeism cohort, the vaccinated group performed twice better than the non-vaccinated. In this study, influenza vaccination has the potential to reduce absenteeism by 84.8% vaccine effectiveness.
Conclusion: Implementing an influenza vaccination program in the workplace would reduce the burden of ILI financially and indirectly improve the productivity of an institution. It has a significant impact on reducing absenteeism and or presenteeism performance.},
howpublished = {published online at https://apcph.cphm.my},
note = {Type: ORAL PRESENTATION; Organisation: International Medical University; University Kebangsaan Malaysia},
keywords = {absenteeism, Influenza Like Illness, influenza vaccination, presenteeism, workplace},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {proceedings}
}