Workplace influenza vaccination to reduce employee absenteeism: An economic analysis from the employers' perspective.

BACKGROUND

Each year, up to 10% of unvaccinated adults contracts seasonal influenza, with half of this proportion developing symptoms. As a result, employers experience significant economic losses in terms of employee absenteeism. Influenza vaccines can be instrumental in reducing this burden. Workplace vaccination is expected to reduce employee absenteeism more than linearly as a result of positive externalities. It remains unclear whether workplace influenza vaccination yields a positive return on investment.

METHODS

We simulated the spread of influenza in the seasons 2011-12 up to 2017-18 in Belgium by means of a compartmental transmission model. We accounted for age-specific social contact patterns and included reduced contact behavior when symptomatically infected. We simulated the impact of employer-funded influenza vaccination at the workplace and performed a cost-benefit analysis to assess the employers' return on workplace vaccination. Furthermore, we look into the cost-benefit of rewarding vaccinated employees by offering an additional day off.

RESULTS

Workplace vaccination reduced the burden of influenza both on the workplace and in the population at large. Compared to the current vaccine coverage - 21% in the population at large - an employee vaccine coverage of 90% could avert an additional 355 000 cases, of which about 150 000 in the employed population and 205 000 in the unemployed population. While seasonal influenza vaccination has been cost-saving on average at about €10 per vaccinated employee, the cost-benefit analysis was prone to between-season variability.

CONCLUSIONS

Vaccinated employees can serve as a barrier to limit the spread of influenza in the population, reducing the attack rate by 78% at an employee coverage of 90%. While workplace vaccination is relatively inexpensive (due to economies of scale) and convenient, the return on investment is volatile. Government subsidies can be pivotal to encourage employers to provide vaccination at the workplace with positive externalities to society as a whole.