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Frankfurt / Main (dpa / lhe) - After a short interim high in the first corona-related lockdown in March, the number of sick leave due to mental illness has fallen significantly according to a survey by the Barmer health insurance company.
A low point was reached at the beginning of July when only 0.89 percent of the employed in Hesse could not go to work due to such an illness.
For the representative survey, Barmer evaluated incapacity for work reports from the 760,000 Hessian Barmer insured persons from the years 2018 to 2020 and extrapolated them to the state population.
The decline in these sick leave due to mental illness should not be interpreted as an improvement in the health situation.
Analyzes from recent years have shown that mental illnesses increasingly lead to incapacity for work.
Rather, it can be assumed that the pandemic has only changed the trend temporarily.
"It is therefore important to pay attention to mental health, even under the conditions of the pandemic and changed working environments, so that it does not restrict the quality of life and the world of work in a more severe way in the future," said Martin Till, state manager of Barmer.
According to the survey, the total number of sick leave had reached a peak in March.
In the second half of the month, more than 282,000 workers were on sick leave - eight percent of the workforce in the country, an increase of more than 29 percent compared to the previous year's high.
This value then also fell significantly again, having already fallen below the previous year's level in mid-April.
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Barmer State Representation Hesse
Barmer insurance numbers