Mask requirement in the corridors, distance in the kitchenette and disinfection stations in front of each door. Those who even came to work in the offices in the first half of this year had hardly any contact with their colleagues there either. After all, at least half of the workforce was at home most of the time. This has led to the fact that Hessian employees were sick as rarely as they had not for a long time in the first half of 2021. According to surveys by the health insurance company DAK-Gesundheit, the sickness rate was lower than it has been in twelve years. In Hesse it has decreased by a total of 0.5 percentage points and at 3.7 percent is at the national level. This means that an average of 37 out of 1,000 Hessian employees were on sick leave every day.Overall, employees had 13 percent fewer days off in the first half of the year than in the same period of the previous year.

Patricia Andreae

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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The decline is particularly noticeable in professions that have increasingly migrated to the home office.

Employees in corporate management and organization as well as in law and administration had an average of a quarter fewer days of absence than in the first half of 2021. "Home office and increased hygiene measures not only protect against corona, common colds are also transmitted less often," says Sötkin Geitner, head of the DAK State Representation Hesse.

The historically low sickness rate is related to the "massive decline in respiratory diseases - minus 66 percent".

Positive side effects of the corona measures

The Barmer Ersatzkasse confirms the trend.

The Techniker Krankenkasse recently reported that absenteeism had decreased in almost all diagnoses, but especially in the case of respiratory diseases.

At the cash registers, the hygiene measures are also seen as the reason for significantly fewer gastrointestinal diseases.

However, it cannot be concluded that fighting the pandemic was fundamentally good for the health of workers.

Because while the number of days absent due to infections decreased, musculoskeletal disorders and mental illnesses increased.

According to the DAK, they are one of the most important causes of sick leave.

More mental illness

The decline in sick leave due to infections in professions with a lot of contact, for example in daycare centers and hospitals, was less pronounced. In the education system there was a relatively small decrease of minus 3.5 percent. Clinic employees only recorded a drop of 4.2 percent. "Nursing is one of the industries with the highest levels of sickness," said Geitner. "Here, as in the care of the elderly, an effective relief of the workforce is urgently needed." In the clinics, the health insurance fund has also observed an above-average increase in absent days due to psychological stress. By the end of June, there were 185 days of absence due to psychological diagnoses for every 100 clinic employees insured by the DAK, which was almost a fifth more than in the same period of the previous year.In childcare, too, there was a significant increase in absent days of 17 percent for mental illnesses.

But the burden is not only high in nursing professions. According to the DAK, mental illnesses also make up a fifth of sick leave at 20.4 percent. With around 136 absent days per 100 insured persons, they were almost seven percent above the level of the first half of 2020. "The pandemic with all its side effects has had an intensifying effect on mental illnesses," said Geitner. "What we can still expect as a result of the lockdown times is difficult for us to estimate today." However, the increase in these complaints is apparently not due to Corona alone. "In the past ten years we have observed a continuous increase in absenteeism due to mental illness," said Barbara Voss, head of the TK state representative in Hesse recently.According to TK surveys, the trend in the pandemic did not continue. "Nevertheless, the exceptional situation takes strength," said Voss.