Association of Comorbid Mental Health Symptoms and Physical Health Conditions With Employee Productivity

Objective: This study tests the hypothesis that employees with comorbid physical health conditions and mental health symptoms are less productive than other employees. Methods: Self-reported health status and productivity measures were collected from 1723 employees of a national retail organization. chi(2), analysis of variance, and linear contrast analyses were conducted to evaluate whether health status groups differed on productivity measures. Multivariate linear regression and multinomial logistic regression analyses were conducted to analyze how predictive health status was of productivity. Results: Those with comorbidities were significantly less productive on all productivity measures compared with all other health status groups and those with only physical health conditions or mental health symptoms. Health status also significantly predicted levels of employee productivity. Conclusion: These findings provide evidence for the relationship between health statuses and productivity, which has potential programmatic implications. (J Occup Environ Med. 2009;51:1137-1144)