It perhaps stands to reason to expect workers suffering from various health conditions to also suffer from lower productivity, but nonetheless, new research from Curtin University is interesting because it highlights just how significant the problem is, especially for young adults.

The researchers examined data from the Raine Study, which is one of the largest collections of data on childhood, adolescence and early adulthood conducted anywhere in the world.  The team hoped to explore the impact of various common health conditions, such as asthma and arthritis, on our productivity at work.

It’s perhaps no surprise that the authors believe that keeping young people as healthy as possible has a big impact both on their quality of life but also the productivity of society.

“Despite a common belief that young workers are healthy, we found that more than half of the young adults involved in this study experienced multiple health conditions,” they explain.  “We also found that there was a significant link between multiple health conditions in young workers and poor productivity in the workplace.”

Unhealthy workers

The most damaging conditions, in productivity terms, were musculoskeletal in nature, with sleep and mental health issues also strongly linked to poorer productivity at work.

The researchers hope that their findings underline the importance of taking robust preventative measures to tackle issues in their infancy so that people can lead as productive a life as possible.  This is especially so for young people, who the data found had a surprising range of conditions.

“The number of people living with more than one long-term health condition is expected to rise in the coming years, so it is important for strategies to be implemented at the start of young workers’ careers to reduce the burden,” the authors say.  “These could include reducing the prevalence of multiple health conditions, increasing employees’ ability to cope with their condition, and improving the accessibility of workplaces for employees with health conditions.”