Exploring National Surveillance for Health-Related Workplace Absenteeism: Lessons Learned From the 2009 Influenza A Pandemic

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Disaster Med Public Health Prep
• Personal Author:
  Groenewold, Matthew R. ; Konicki, Doris L. ; Luckhaupt, Sara E. ; Gomaa, Ahmed ; Koonin, Lisa M.
• Description:
  Background
  
  During the 2009 influenza A (H1N1) virus pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did a pilot study to test the feasibility of using national surveillance of workplace absenteeism to assess the pandemic’s impact on the workplace to plan for preparedness and continuity of operations and to contribute to health awareness during the emergency response.
  
  Methods
  
  Population-based and sentinel worksite approaches were used. Monthly measures of the 1-week prevalence of health-related absenteeism among full-time workers were estimated using nationally representative data from the Current Population Survey. Enhanced passive surveillance of absenteeism was conducted using weekly data from a convenience sample of sentinel worksites.
  
  Results
  
  Nationally, the pandemic’s impact on workplace absenteeism was small. Estimates of 1-week absenteeism prevalence did not exceed 3.7%. However, peak workplace absenteeism was correlated with the highest occurrence of both influenza-like illness and influenza-positive laboratory tests.
  
  Conclusions
  
  Systems for monitoring workplace absenteeism should be included in pandemic preparedness planning
  
  
• Subjects:
  Absenteeism Humans Influenza, Human Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype Pilot Projects Prevalence Sentinel Surveillance Time Factors Workplace
• Source:
  Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 7(2):160-166.
• Pubmed ID:
  24618167
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC4552194
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  CC999999/Intramural CDC HHS/United States
• Place as Subject:
  United States
• Volume:
  7
• Issue:
  2
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:061b700cc3a4e576f14cff41d9e7d4a6a0371105b8c0911547d7a611606d669e
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/33922/cdc_33922_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 216.42 KB ]