Productivity Costs of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic Sclerosis, and Sjogren's Syndrome

Excess Productivity Costs of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic Sclerosis, and Sjogren's Syndrome: A General Population‐Based Study.
Natalie McCormick, Carlo A. Marra, Mohsen Sadatsafavi, Jacek A. Kopec, J. Antonio Aviña‐Zubieta
First published: 12 April 2018
McCormick N, et al. Arthritis Care Res. 2018;doi:10.1002/acr.23573.

The productivity costs due to loss of paid and unpaid work were substantial, particularly due to presenteeism and unpaid work impairments, according to these findings.  Presenteeism is the practice of being present at one's place of work despite illness.

“Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), systemic sclerosis and Sjögren’s syndrome strike mainly females during their peak childrearing and career years, yet little is known about the additional lost productivity costs associated with these diseases,” Natalie McCormick, PhD, of the University of British Columbia and Arthritis Research Canada, told Healio Rheumatology. “Two unique aspects of this study are that we included the costs of diminished productivity from paid and unpaid work, and we compared the costs of these patients with a sample of the general population, to determine the additional — or excess — costs.”

The researchers added that many working-age patients were not employed at all due to health, and that a majority of total productivity costs were due to unpaid work losses. These losses made up for:

•  73% of costs for patients with SLE, 
• 74% for those with systemic sclerosis, 
• 60% for patients with Sjögren’s syndrome and 
• 47% for the healthy controls.

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