Kleinman and colleagues have attempted to quantify the economic burden of employees who are diagnosed with menopause symptoms [1]. Their regression-based study analyzed the 2001–2010 medical, pharmacy, sick leave, disability, workers’ compensation, and productivity data of large US employers. A cohort of employed women with diagnosed menopause symptoms (DMS), aged more than 40 years, was identified using medical claims. Control employees were propensity-matched on age, employer, plan enrollment length, and enrollment end date. The study included 17,322 women in each cohort. Employees with DMS had significantly higher medical costs ($4315 vs. $2972, [i]p[/i] < 0.001), pharmacy costs ($1366 vs. $908, [i]p[/i] < 0.001), sick leave costs ($647 vs. $599, [i]p[/i] < 0.001), and sick leave days (3.57 vs. 3.30, [i]p[/i] < 0.001). Employees with DMS had 12.2% ([i]p[/i] = 0.007) lower hourly productivity and 10.9% ([i]p[/i] = 0.014) lower annual productivity than controls.
Author(s)
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Amos Pines
Department of Medicine T, Ichilov Hospital, Tel-Aviv, Israel
Citations
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Kleinman NL, Rohrbacker NJ, Bushmakin AG, et al. Direct and indirect costs of women diagnosed with menopause symptoms. J Occup Environ Med 2013 Mar 25. Epub ahead of print
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23532198 -
Pines A, Sturdee DW, MacLennan AH. Quality of life and the role of menopausal hormone therapy. Climacteric 2012;15:213-16.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22612606 -
Salpeter SR, Buckley NS, Liu H, Salpeter EE. The cost-effectiveness of hormone therapy in younger and older postmenopausal women. Am J Med 2009;122:42-52.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19114171 -
Ward S, Lloyd Jones M, Pandor A, et al. A systematic review and economic evaluation of statins for the prevention of coronary events. Health Technol Assess 2007;11:1-160.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17408535 -
Kjerulff KH, Frick KD, Rhoades JA, Hollenbeak CS. The cost of being a woman: a national study of health care utilization and expenditures for female-specific conditions. Womens Health Issues 2007;17:13-21.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17321943
