The lag in the diagnosis and treatment of insomnia translates into billions of dollars in lost productivity and absenteeism in the American workforce, according to research by Sanofi-aventis U.S., an international pharmaceutical company, with support from the not-for-profit Center for Medicine in the Public Interest (CMPI), which seeks to promote preventive and patient-centered approaches to health care.
The paper — Waking Up to the Insomnia Crisis: How Insomnia is Costing America More Than $42 Billion a Year and What We Can Do About It — suggests that while up to 70 million Americans might suffer from some form of insomnia, a high number of those cases are undiagnosed and untreated, even as the condition becomes a mounting financial burden on America's employers and the health care system.
The economic and social impact of insomnia is significant, according to the researchers:
• Employees with insomnia miss work twice as much as those who do not suffer from the condition.
• Insomnia costs employers about 4.4 days of wages per untreated individual over a six-month period, not including money spent on indirect costs, such as lost productivity and costs to treat the medical consequences of insomnia.
• Health care professionals-in-training who work recurring 24-hour shifts with little sleep have been found to make 36 percent more serious medical errors and five times as many serious diagnostic errors as those whose work is limited to 16 consecutive hours.
CMPI Vice President Robert Goldberg puts the problem in perspective: "We should treat insomnia as it should be treated: a serious medical condition that has significant health and economic implications," he says. "Like other chronic diseases, insomnia has been managed according to the cost of treating patients instead of the cost the disease exacts on individuals, employers and society."
Lack of awareness about the condition and a communication gap between patients and physicians are to blame, adds Goldberg. "Without the proper education and support, patients don't know how to communicate their sleep problems to a health care provider, which means the condition goes untreated."
Action Steps
The report proposes the following plan of action:
• Identify pathways for diagnosing and treating insomnia.
• Execute targeted outreach to patients and health care providers based on specific criteria that reflect the latest findings in genetics, clinical research and outcomes data. Patients need to be able to identify and communicate insomnia symptoms, and health care providers must be primed to identify patient complaints that indicate insomnia as well as be well-versed in available solutions.
• Educate media, health insurers and employers about their roles in spreading awareness, improving care and helping to move to a value-based treatment approach.
• Encourage health plans and employers to design wellness programs that integrate insomnia management.
CMPI President Peter Pitts concludes, "In order to break insomnia out of the 'lifestyle condition' box in which it has been placed, we must be able to engage and educate patients, health care professionals, health insurers and employers on different terms. For each audience, a new understanding of insomnia is imperative if we hope to successfully change attitudes and action. Every day without a change in course has consequence."
Stephen Miller is an online editor/manager for SHRM.
Related Articles:
Sleep Deprivation Brings Lower Productivity, Higher Health Costs, SHRM Online Benefits Discipline, April 2006
Quick Link:
SHRM Online Benefits Discipline