To determine excess productivity losses and costs of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), systemic sclerosis (SSc), and Sjögren's syndrome (SS) at the population level.
Administrative databases from the province of British Columbia, Canada, were used to establish population-based cohorts of SLE, SSc, and SS, and matched comparison cohorts were selected from the general population. Random samples from these cohorts were surveyed about time absent from paid and unpaid work and working at reduced levels/efficiency (presenteeism), using validated labor questionnaires. We estimated excess productivity losses and costs of each diagnosis (over and above nonsystemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases [non-SARDs]), using 2-part models and work disability rates (not employed due to health).
Surveys were completed by 167 SLE, 42 SSc, and 90 SS patients, and by 375 non-SARDs (comparison group) participants. Altogether, predicted excess hours of paid and unpaid work loss were 3.5, 3.2, and 3.4 hours per week for SLE, SSc, and SS patients, respectively. Excess costs were $86, $69, and $84 (calculated as 2015 Canadian dollars) per week, or $4,494, $3,582, and $4,357 per person annually, respectively. Costs for productivity losses from paid work stemmed mainly from presenteeism (SLE = 69% of costs, SSc = 67%, SS = 64%, and non-SARDs = 53%), not from absenteeism. However, many working-age patients were not employed at all, due to health (SLE = 36%, SSc = 32%, SS = 30%, and non-SARDs = 18%), and the majority of total productivity costs were from unpaid work loss (SLE = 73% of costs, SSc = 74%, SS = 60%, and non-SARDs = 47%). Adjusted excess costs from these unpaid production losses were $127, $100, and $82 per week, respectively, among SLE, SSc, and SS patients.
In this population-based sample of prevalent SLE, SSc, and SS, lost productivity costs were substantial, mainly from presenteeism and unpaid work impairments.