Being a frontline worker in a health emergency: Healthcare workers’ absences and health during the COVID-19 pandemic

IF 2.2 2区经济学 Q2 ECONOMICS

Labour Economics Pub Date : 2025-05-21 DOI:10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102727

Hege Gjefsen , Mari Grøsland , Maja W. Grøtting , Bjørn-Atle Reme

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Abstract

This paper examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health and absenteeism of healthcare workers. Our findings show an increase in sick leave due to non-COVID-19-related illness and mental health-related consultations in primary care. Additionally, we observe a rise in the use of prescription medications for mental health issues, though this result is less certain due to a shorter observation period. The adverse effects are particularly pronounced among lower-status occupational roles and in regions with higher infection rates. However, the moderate difference in effects across areas with varying levels of infection rates suggests that, beyond the direct impact of treating COVID-19 patients, stringent infection control measures may have contributed to the adverse effects. While these effects appear to be largely transitory, we estimate the cost of increased sick leave due to non-COVID-19-related illness among healthcare workers during the pandemic to be approximately 45 million EUR.

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作为突发卫生事件的一线工作者：COVID-19大流行期间医护人员的缺勤与健康

本文探讨了COVID-19大流行对卫生保健工作者健康和缺勤的影响。我们的研究结果显示，因与covid -19无关的疾病和初级保健中与心理健康相关的咨询而请病假的人数有所增加。此外，我们观察到使用处方药治疗心理健康问题的人数有所增加，尽管由于观察期较短，这一结果不太确定。在地位较低的职业角色和感染率较高的地区，不良影响尤其明显。然而，不同感染率地区的效果差异不大，这表明，除了治疗COVID-19患者的直接影响外，严格的感染控制措施可能是造成不良反应的原因之一。虽然这些影响似乎在很大程度上是暂时的，但我们估计，在大流行期间，卫生保健工作者因非covid -19相关疾病而增加的病假费用约为4500万欧元。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Labour Economics ECONOMICS-

CiteScore

3.60

自引率

8.30%

发文量

142

期刊介绍： Labour Economics is devoted to publishing research in the field of labour economics both on the microeconomic and on the macroeconomic level, in a balanced mix of theory, empirical testing and policy applications. It gives due recognition to analysis and explanation of institutional arrangements of national labour markets and the impact of these institutions on labour market outcomes.