Frankfurt/Main (dpa/lhe) – In summer, almost as many employees reported sick to the health insurance company DAK-Gesundheit as in winter. This shows an absence analysis for the months of July to September in Hesse. As the health insurance company announced, in addition to increasing infections, back problems and depression also caused many absenteeism from work. Corona, on the other hand, hardly played a role.
According to the evaluation of all sick leave, the sick leave among DAK-insured persons in Hesse climbed by 40 percent – from 3.5 percentage points in the second quarter to 4.9 percentage points in the third quarter. From July to September, an average of 49 of every 1,000 employees in Hesse were absent from work every day. According to the DAK, sick leave was at a similarly high level as in the winter months (first quarter: 5.1 percent).
According to the DAK, diseases of the musculoskeletal system were mainly responsible for the failures. Second place was taken by respiratory diseases such as colds, bronchitis or flu. The third most common were mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety disorders. Absences due to a corona infection, on the other hand, fell significantly. Their share of the total sick leave was 3.6 percentage points in the third quarter – after 6.9 in the second and 8.7 in the first quarter.
Around 620,000 people in Hesse are insured with DAK-Gesundheit. For the absence analysis, the data of around 250,000 employed members were evaluated.
