Establishing work productivity loss norms: Absenteeism and presenteeism in a Canadian working population

Cost-effectiveness guidelines recommend including productivity losses in economic evaluations conducted from a societal perspective. However, work productivity loss estimates, including absenteeism and presenteeism, are lacking for a general working population. This limits the ability of researchers and decision makers to comprehensively evaluate the incremental costs of health conditions and the benefits of interventions. Using the 2022 Canadian Community Health Survey, absenteeism was measured using two recall periods (7 days and 3 months). Presenteeism behaviour was measured as days worked while sick, and the related productivity loss was measured using a 0-10 scale and an hours method. Absenteeism and presenteeism estimates in a representative Canadian working population (n = 9,148) were reported by age, sex, health status, and chronic conditions. The 0-10 scale (4.89 % (standard error: 0.27 %)) generated a higher presenteeism productivity loss percentage than the hours method (1.73 % (0.18 %)). Females reported higher absenteeism in the past 3 months, higher presenteeism behaviour, and higher presenteeism loss percentage (the 0-10 scale) than males; ages 30-44 reported the highest presenteeism loss percentage using the scale method (5.11 % (0.40 %)), whereas ages 15-29 reported the highest loss percentage using the hours method (2.02 % (0.61 %)). Health status was inversely related to absenteeism in the past 3 months and to presenteeism behaviour and related productivity loss percentages across all methods. These results underscore that productivity loss estimates differ by recall period and measurement method. This study generated population norms for absenteeism and presenteeism that can serve as benchmarks for these outcomes among specific groups relative to the general population.