Chronic health conditions and their impact on the labor market. A cross-country comparison in Europe.

OBJECTIVES

To estimate the effect of having a chronic disease on the weekly working hours and the associated monetary losses.

DESIGN

Longitudinal data Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement (SHARE) in Europe. We analyzed 7 waves from 9 countries in Europe. A total of 80.672 observations.

SETTING

Participants who have their regular domicile in the respective SHARE country were interviewed face-to-face.

PARTICIPANTS

Data from individuals aged between 50 and 65 years old in European countries were collected over seven years. A person was excluded from the survey if incarcerated, hospitalized or out of the country during the entire survey period, unable to speak the country's language(s) or moved to an unknown address.

INTERVENTIONS

Not applicable.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS

We applied a difference-in-differences with multiple time periods approach to estimate the effect of having a chronic condition on the number of working hours per week. We monetized the estimated productivity losses using the legal minimum wage in each country.

RESULTS

Persons with a chronic condition consistently reduced their weekly working hours compared to their healthy counterparts in the same country. This effect was more pronounced for men (6,78 hours per week or 352 hours per year) than women (3,97 hours per week or 206 hours per year). Persons with stroke, vascular, and lung disease showed the highest impact. On average, the reduced working hours represent about USD 12,80 billion annually in productivity losses in our sample.

CONCLUSION

Having a chronic condition leads to people decreasing their working hours, which has significant economic losses. More severe health conditions showed the highest effects. This trend is observed in all the analyzed countries, highlighting the relevance of health and social systems to go beyond mortality and morbidity and the need to incorporate functioning in their target goals.