Burton W N, Conti D J, Chen C Y, Schultz A B, Edington D W
Northwestern University Medical School, Bank One, Mail Code IL1-0006, 1 Bank One Plaza, Chicago, IL 60670-0006, USA.
J Occup Environ Med. 2001 Jan;43(1):64-71. doi: 10.1097/00043764-200101000-00013.
Allergic disorders are a chronic and highly prevalent condition in the general population and the workforce. Their effect on workers and corporate costs go beyond the direct cost of treatment, as the condition can lower a worker's productivity. Previous research includes estimates of the decrease in productivity associated with allergic disorders. None of these studies, however, offered an objective measure of how worker productivity is affected by allergic disorders. In the present study, the productivity of telephone customer service representatives suffering from allergic disorders is examined before, during, and after the ragweed pollen season. In addition, these workers were surveyed as to the type of medication they used in response to their condition. A significant correlation was observed between an increase in pollen counts and a decrease in productivity for workers with allergies. Compared with workers without allergies, employees with allergies who reported using no medication showed a 10% decrease in productivity. No differences were observed among workers with allergies using different types of medications, although the medication groups had significantly higher productivity than the no-medication group. The expected lowered productivity of those workers with allergies who used sedating antihistamines may have been offset by their relatively lower level of symptom severity and by the nature of the job and the productivity measures used.
过敏性疾病在普通人群和劳动力中是一种慢性且高度普遍的病症。它们对工人和企业成本的影响超出了治疗的直接成本，因为这种病症会降低工人的生产力。先前的研究包括对与过敏性疾病相关的生产力下降的估计。然而，这些研究都没有提供一种客观的方法来衡量工人生产力是如何受到过敏性疾病影响的。在本研究中，对患有过敏性疾病的电话客服代表在豚草花粉季节之前、期间和之后的生产力进行了考察。此外，还就这些工人针对自身病情所使用的药物类型进行了调查。对于有过敏症的工人，观察到花粉计数增加与生产力下降之间存在显著相关性。与没有过敏症的工人相比，报告未使用药物的过敏症员工生产力下降了10%。使用不同类型药物的过敏症工人之间未观察到差异，尽管用药组的生产力明显高于未用药组。那些使用镇静性抗组胺药的过敏症工人预期的生产力降低可能已被其相对较低的症状严重程度以及工作性质和所采用的生产力衡量方法所抵消。
