The Impact of Shift Work and Long Work Hours on Employers' Health Care Costs.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To estimate the additional health care costs incurred by two U.S. manufacturing companies due to their policies related to shift work and long work hours.

Methods

We applied risk ratios from the published literature to data on 2647 workers from Company A and 1346 workers from Company B to estimate the excess cases of several chronic conditions in the worker population due to shift work and long work hours. We estimated the annual health care costs incurred by the companies by applying Medicare cost data.

Results

Excess annual health care costs related to shift work totaled $1,394,365 and $300,297 for Companies A and B, respectively. Excess annual costs related to long work hours totaled $231,293 and $107,902 for Companies A and B, respectively.

Conclusion

SUBMITTER: McHugh M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7720877 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature