A high burden of sickness-related absenteeism (SRA) amongst healthcare workers (HCWs) may impact health service delivery. The burden is known in high-income settings but not well evaluated in low and middle income (LMIC) settings and absent within a South African context. To determine the prevalence, associated medical conditions and cost of SRA amongst HCWs in a LMIC setting, we evaluated Human Resource (HR) absence records from a teaching hospital in South Africa over a 3 year period. Of the 3,543 HCW employed during the study period, 78% (n = 2,748) had at least 1 SRA episode. The overall SRA prevalence was 2.63%. The mean duration of absence was 2.25 days per episode and the mean frequency was 2.65 episodes per annum. Conditions of the musculoskeletal system (40.1%) were the most commonly reported, followed by acute infections of the upper respiratory tract (13.2%) and other respiratory conditions (6.2%). The total direct cost SRA was US$5,105,061.78 over the study period and the mean direct SRA cost per person was US$1,857.74 per episode. The results demonstrate a higher SRA burden compared with studies in similar settings and prompts further research into the causative factors and targeted risk mitigation strategies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uct/oai:localhost:11427/37526 |
| Date | 15 March 2023 |
| Creators | Khan, Muhamed Adil |
| Contributors | Adams, Shahieda, Cleary, Susan |
| Publisher | Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Public Health and Family Medicine |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Master Thesis, Masters, MPH |
| Format | application/pdf |
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