Health care use and at-work productivity among employees with mental disorders

This study examines the differential medical care use and work productivity of employees with and without anxiety and with other mental disorders at a large national firm. A unique aspect of this study is that we integrate medical claims and employer-provided, objective productivity data for the same employees. We find extensive mental health comorbidities among anxious employees. Although medical care use differs considerably among employees having no, one, or several treated mental disorders, in most cases their annual average absenteeism and average at-work productivity performance do not differ. Differences among subgroups are observed for job tenure and maternity claims. We discuss these long-term average productivity findings in relation to other literature encompassing shorter time periods.