The IGES Institute, based in Berlin, recently evaluated the sick leave data for the health insurance company DAK-Gesundheit.
Data from 2.3 million employees were provided for the analysis, which showed a decrease in sickness notifications in the first two quarters of 2021 compared to the same periods in 2019/2020.
According to this, only 3.7 percent of all those insured with the DAK reported sick in the first half of this year. All those on sick leave had an average of 6.7 days of absence, a decrease of 22 percent. In 2019 and 2020, the number of sick days was significantly higher at 4.2 percent.
As CEO of the third-largest health insurance company in Germany, Andreas Storm knows that the AHA rules and the wearing of masks were able to curb the number of respiratory illnesses massively. There was hardly the usual cold season this year. The number of days absent per 100 insured persons almost halved compared to the same period last year. While the share of respiratory illnesses was still 18.3 percent before the pandemic, it fell to 7.1 percent of all DAK-insured persons on sick leave in the same period in 2021. The health expert believes that wearing masks will continue to make sense in the future, especially in the winter season.
Unfortunately, other illnesses have again increased in number due to the Corona pandemic. At 24.9 percent, DAK-Gesundheit recorded 4.2 percent more days of absence due to back pain and diseases of the musculoskeletal system and an increase in absenteeism to almost 20 percent due to mental illnesses.
In 2020, mental illnesses were still in third place of all sick leave registrations with 16.7 percent. Due to the Corona pandemic, the value rose to 19.8 percent and thus occupies second place in the statistics for absences from work.
Occupational groups that could switch to the home office due to work have a low sickness rate and fewer days of absence than, for example, teachers and educators. Nurses and care workers for the elderly are sick just as often as in the years before the virus spread.
Source: www.apotheken-umschau.de