Employers should take a proactive approach to managing staff with multiple serious health issues, new research from the University of Otago suggests.
A study of multimorbidity — when people live with two or more long-term serious health problems — said the effect of those conditions on patients was far-reaching.
"It often involves taking multiple medications, may adversely affect employment, and can involve frequent but fragmented healthcare," the article, published in the latest issue of the New Zealand Medical Journal, said.
"These patients are at a high risk of poor outcomes such as disability, functional decline, and poor quality of life."
That such patients reported poorer health than the general New Zealand population was unsurprising, lead researcher Jeannine Stairmand, from the department of public health, University of Otago, Wellington, said.
However, researchers were surprised to find nearly 20% of participants had problems paying for their healthcare needs, especially as only 12% of respondents lived in the most deprived areas.
Those difficulties were possibly related to workplace issues, as many survey respondents had to make changes to their employment due to their ill health.
"Employment limitations and financial treatment burdens associated with multimorbidity also make self-management challenging," the article said.
"To maintain workplace productivity and employee wellness, it is necessary for workplaces to take a proactive approach to the health of their workers."
The researchers said they had difficulty recruiting Maori and Pacific Island subjects for the survey, but data from those who did respond suggested that multimorbidity had the greatest impact on those peoples.
"Nearly half of Maori participants reported that they found it hard to cover basic living costs in addition to their healthcare expenses.
"The financial impact of long-term conditions is important and under-researched."
Ms Stairmand said more than half of the people studied were living with three or more long-term conditions.
"The results support a partnership approach to improving the lives of people with multimorbidity, including supporting patients to self-manage their conditions; society level support involving support people and employers; and healthcare providers taking person-centred approaches using holistic care models," she said.
