Measuring the Economic Burden of Health Conditions among White?Collar Employees: A Cross?Sectional Study from Delhi? NCR

Title

Measuring the Economic Burden of Health Conditions among White?Collar Employees: A Cross?Sectional Study from Delhi? NCR

Creator

Yadav M.; Viji B.

Description

Background: In the past few decades, there has been a significant increase in healthcare expenditure due to the prevalence of health issues across the globe. This is primarily seen among white-collar employees due to the sedentary nature of their jobs, which affects their current earnings (Purchasing Power) directly due to the reallocation of their real income towards healthcare expenditure (Economic Burden) and indirectly by impacting work productivity through sick leaves. Aim: To measure the economic burden of disease(s) among white-collar employees, and to study the same across different socio-demographic variables. Methods: A cross-sectional study has been conducted in the region of Delhi-NCR among 357 white-collar employees. A random sampling method was adopted using a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire collected information regarding the direct and indirect costs of health conditions with a recall period of one month. The cumulative score of these monthly costs was converted to annual data to estimate the economic burden of the health conditions among the employees over a year. Results: As compared to Communicable diseases (16.24%), Non-communicable diseases (27.17%) were more prevalent among the respondents. Compared to other diseases, the employees suffering from Heart diseases (INR 7,62,237.50), Spinal health issues (INR 1,73,625.00), and Diabetes (INR 1,64,535.71) incurred more economic burden. At a 5% significance level, no significant difference was observed in economic burden for Gender and BMI. However, the economic burden was significantly different across the categories of Age and Monthly income. A positive association can be observed in economic burden with the increasing categories of age and monthly income. Conclusion: With the nature of sedentary work (desk jobs), white-collar employees are at a greater risk of exposure to various NCDs than CDs and incur a significant amount of out-of-pocket expenditure to manage their health status. 2023 Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications. All rights reserved.

Source

Indian Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Vol-27, No. 4, pp. 317-324.

Date

2023-01-01

Publisher

Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications

Subject

Direct cost; economic burden; health conditions; indirect cost; non-communicable diseases; white-collar employees

Coverage

Yadav M., Department of Economics, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Karnataka, Bengaluru, India; Viji B., Department of Economics, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Karnataka, Bengaluru, India

Rights

All Open Access; Green Open Access

Relation

ISSN: 9732284; CODEN: IJIDA

Format

Online

Language

English

Type

Article

Identifier

https://doi.org/10.4103/ijoem.ijoem_210_22

https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85183155082&doi=10.4103%2fijoem.ijoem_210_22&partnerID=40&md5=b77eb9848ec71a8f30564a1716fb1d1f