The association of overweight and different degrees of obesity on absenteeism across 30 EU countries

Obesity and its health consequences affect not only health care systems but also economies with respect to the labour force and productivity. Evidence of its relationship with absenteeism in Europe is only available for few countries and obesity in general. We investigated the risk of absence from work due to being overweight or having different degrees of obesity in Europe as well as how this risk varies by sex, occupation, economic sector, countries and country clusters with respect to labour market and employment policies. The European Health Interview Survey comprises representative, standardised cross-sectional micro data for European countries. We used survey-weighted models to estimate the differences in the risk of absenteeism for people with overweight and different degrees of obesity compared to normal weight. The estimation was adjusted by socio-economic, work-related and behavioural variables and checked for robustness by health-related variables. The analysis included 141,964 weighted observations representing 164,497,355 employed people across 30 European countries. The risk ratio of absenteeism increased significantly for overweight (1.06, 95%CI: 1.03, 1.09), obesity I (1.18, 95%CI: 1.14, 1.23), obesity II (1.27, 95%CI: 1.19, 1.35) and obesity III (1.42, 95%CI: 1.31, 1.54) compared to normal weight. Women had a higher risk ratio for absenteeism with overweight compared to men. For occupations, the highest risk ratios were estimated for ‘Technicians’ for obesity class III (1.71, 95%CI: 1.53, 1.92). The pattern of increasing risk ratios with increasing degrees of obesity was similar for all occupations, economic sectors, countries and country clusters. Absenteeism is not only associated with obesity, but also with the degree of obesity. This finding is consistent across sex, occupation, economic sector, countries and country clusters. Policy measures are required to support individuals with obesity and to prevent a further increase in prevalence.

Key messages

• The risk of absence from work due to health issues increases further with higher degrees of obesity illustrating the importance of policy measures to tackle the challenges arising with obesity.

• The pattern of an increased risk of absenteeism with a higher degree of obesity is similar across sex, occupation, economic sector, European countries and country clusters.