Economic Burden of Illness in Canada, 1993

APPENDIX 6

Weights for Loss of Productivity at Different Levels of Disability

Weights for various levels of disability based on "loss of health" have been developed by Russell Wilkins.¹ However, loss of health may not be equal or linearly related to "loss of earnings/productivity."^1-4

Dr John Dorland ² of Queen's University suggests that the association between long-term disability and "loss of earnings" may have three phases: with a minor long-term disability, people suffer some loss of health but no loss of earnings because their work habits do not change; as the disability gets worse, people cut back on work, becoming less productive; then, at a certain severe level of disability, earnings drop to near zero as people stop work entirely, although the quality of life does not necessarily decrease at the same rate.

Based on personal communication with Russell Wilkins, John Dorland and Michael Cassidy, we estimate weights for "loss of productivity" at different levels of disability for the household and institutionalized population.

Weights for loss of earnings are generally poorly defined and lack validation.³ In addition, the weights for various levels of disability may vary by diagnostic category and occupation. We did not consider these factors in our calculations because of the lack of literature on this topic. Our weights may overestimate productivity losses for people able to adapt to their conditions and may underestimate productivity losses for people with more debilitating conditions.

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