Personality Factors and Sick Leave Days. Evidence from a Nationally Representative Longitudinal Study in Germany.

BACKGROUND: The question of whether employees' sickness absence from the workplace depends on personality has been researched. Existing evidence mostly stems from cross-sectional studies, mainly showing that personality factors were not associated with the number of sick leave days, except for neuroticism, which was positively associated with sick leave days. Based on the above, it remains an under researched question whether intraindividual changes in personality factors are associated with changes in sick leave days. Thus, based on a nationally representative sample, the current study aimed to investigate the relationship between personality factors and sick leave days longitudinally based on a nationally representative sample of individuals in Germany. METHODS: The present study used data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP), a longitudinal survey of private households in Germany. Information from the years 2005, 2009, 2013 were used. The Big Five Inventory-GSOEP (BFI-S) was used to measure personality. Sick leave days in the preceding year were recorded. Poisson fixed effects regressions were used. RESULTS: Adjusting for potential confounders, regressions showed that increases in neuroticism were associated with increased sick leave days. The longitudinal association between extraversion and sick leave days was marginally significant (p < 0.10). Other personality factors were not significantly associated with sick leave days. In addition, sick leave days increased with worsening self-rated health, presence of severe disability and increasing age. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of the current study highlight the association between neuroticism and sick leave days longitudinally. Further research is required to elucidate the underlying mechanisms.

A systematic review of the association of anxiety with health care utilization and costs in people aged 65 years and older.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND: In older people, anxiety disorders are among the most prevalent mental disorders and a high proportion suffers from clinically relevant anxiety symptoms. Despite studies suggesting an association of anxiety with health care utilization (HCU) and a resulting economic burden to the health care system, we found no review systematically analyzing evidence on this association in older people. OBJECTIVE: To analyze and synthesize evidence on the association of anxiety disorders and symptoms with HCU and costs in people aged 65 years and over in a systematic review. METHODS: A systematic search of peer-reviewed literature was conducted in three electronic databases. Additional references were identified through reference lists of included studies. Inclusion criteria were: studies reporting the association of anxiety disorders or symptoms with HCU or costs, specifically in people aged 65 years and over, with observational study design, in German or English language. Findings were synthesized qualitatively and study quality was assessed. RESULTS: N = 15 studies (HCU n = 10, costs n = 5) were included in the final synthesis. Overall, studies either reported significantly increased HCU in anxiety disorders compared to a healthy comparison group/according to degree of symptoms, or found no significant association between these variables. Total excess costs for anxiety disorders ranged from -116 to 19,003 $PPP per year. LIMITATIONS: Differences in methodology limited the comparability of included studies. CONCLUSION: Most studies suggest an increased economic burden due to anxiety in older people. Studies using standardized instruments are needed.