Cost of lost work and bed days for us workers in private industry--national health interview survey, 2003

Data from the 2003 National Health Interview Survey (n = 12,943) of US workers aged 18 to 64 years were used to estimate the annual cost of lost work (ACLW) and lost productivity (ACLP) due to bed days. The average lost workdays (LWDs) was estimated to be 8.39 for US workers compared with 5.62 bed days (BDs). The prevalence of high LWDs (>or=30 days) was 2.9% for US workers compared with 1.3% for BDs (>or=30 days). Regression analyses showed that female workers had higher adjusted mean LWDs and BDs than did male workers. Workers in the mining industry had the highest mean of 26.71 LWDs compared with 5.58 LWDs for workers in the wholesale industry. The total ACLW and ACLP was estimated to be $62.8 billion ($US 2003; 95% CI = $57.53-$67.52 billion).