DAK study on record sick leave among young employees in the first quarter of 2023
11.05.2023 17:14
An unusually large number of young employees had at least one sick note in the first quarter of 2023. For example, every second female employee under the age of 25 was affected. The absence analysis by DAK-Gesundheit for the first twelve weeks of the year shows a total increase of 63 percent in respiratory diseases. The President of the German Society for General Medicine and Family Medicine, Professor Scherer, gives a nuanced explanation as to why so many employees were really plagued by colds and the like in the first quarter.
From January to March 2023, more employees in Germany were on sick leave than in any other first quarter ever before. A striking number of younger employees had at least one sick note. Half of all working women between the ages of 20 and 25 alone were affected. According to the current absence analysis by DAK-Gesundheit for around 2.2 million employed insured people, respiratory diseases caused a record loss of work. The number of days absent due to Corona, however, fell by 60 percent. Overall, the sickness rate was 5.9 percent, 0.7 percentage points higher than in the first three months of the previous year.
In the first quarter of 2023, half of the women between 20 and 25 had at least one sick note and were therefore absent from work. Among men of the same age, 44 percent were also unusually high, even for cold months: their level of concern increased by 17 percentage points compared to the first quarter of 2022. Respiratory diseases such as colds and bronchitis were responsible for the significant increase in sick leave among young employees - as well as all other age groups.
In the first twelve weeks of 2023, colds caused 137 days of absence per 100 insured people, 53 days more than in the first quarter of 2022. This corresponds to an increase of 63 percent. From the perspective of the German Society for General Medicine and Family Medicine (DEGAM), various effects overlap with the increased number of sick notes due to respiratory diseases: “On the one hand, we are experiencing a catch-up of infections and immunizations that were prevented by the contact restrictions from 2020 to the beginning of 2022. So a lot of 'infection training' was canceled," explains DEGAM President Professor Dr. Martin Scherer. “On the other hand, there has now been increased awareness of the fact that you can always potentially infect others if you have an infection. This means fewer people come back to work coughing and sniffling. In general, the Robert Koch Institute recommends staying at home for three to five days if you have a respiratory infection - and for this you need a certificate of incapacity for work.”
The total number of sick days increased significantly from 5.2 to 5.9 percent compared to the first quarter of the previous year. On each day from January to March 2023, an average of 59 out of 1,000 employees were on sick leave. The increase is also related to the electronic reporting of sick notes (eAU). The sickness notifications now all come automatically from the doctor's office to the health insurance companies and, since January 1, 2023, from there directly to the employers. “With the new eAU, fewer short messages are lost. This is also why the numbers are increasing,” emphasizes Professor Scherer. DAK-Gesundheit had already pointed out in 2022 that the electronic reporting process guaranteed a lower number of unreported cases and an even closer look at sick leave.
For the current absenteeism analysis for the first quarter of 2023, the Berlin IGES Institute evaluated the data from around 2.2 million employed DAK insured people from all over Germany.