Background

Mental health disorders in the workplace have increasingly been recognised as a problem in most countries given their high economic burden. However, few reviews have examined the relationship between mental health and worker productivity.

Objective

To review the relationship between mental health and lost productivity and undertake a critical review of the published literature.

Methods

A critical review was undertaken to identify relevant studies published in MEDLINE and EconLit from 1 January 2008 to 31 May 2020, and to examine the type of data and methods employed, study findings and limitations, and existing gaps in the literature. Studies were critically appraised, namely whether they recognised and/or addressed endogeneity and unobserved heterogeneity, and a narrative synthesis of the existing evidence was undertaken.

Results

Thirty-eight (38) relevant studies were found. There was clear evidence that poor mental health (mostly measured as depression and/or anxiety) was associated with lost productivity (i.e., absenteeism and presenteeism). However, only the most common mental disorders were typically examined. Studies employed questionnaires/surveys and administrative data and regression analysis. Few studies used longitudinal data, controlled for unobserved heterogeneity or addressed endogeneity; therefore, few studies were considered high quality.

Conclusion

Despite consistent findings, more high-quality, longitudinal and causal inference studies are needed to provide clear policy recommendations. Moreover, future research should seek to understand how working conditions and work arrangements as well as workplace policies impact presenteeism.

中文翻译：

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心理健康对工作场所生产力的作用：文献综述

背景

鉴于其沉重的经济负担，大多数国家越来越多地认识到工作场所的心理健康障碍是一个问题。然而，很少有评论探讨心理健康与工人生产力之间的关系。

客观的

回顾心理健康与生产力损失之间的关系，并对已发表的文献进行批判性审查。

方法

我们进行了严格审查，以确定2008年1月1日至2020年5月31日期间在MEDLINE和EconLit上发表的相关研究，并检查所使用的数据和方法的类型、研究结果和局限性以及文献中现有的差距。对研究进行了批判性评价，即它们是否认识到和/或解决了内生性和未观察到的异质性，并对现有证据进行了叙述性综合。

结果

找到了三十八 (38) 项相关研究。有明确的证据表明，心理健康状况不佳（主要表现为抑郁和/或焦虑）与生产力下降（即缺勤和出勤）有关。然而，通常只检查最常见的精神障碍。研究采用了问卷/调查以及行政数据和回归分析。很少有研究使用纵向数据，控制未观察到的异质性或解决内生性；因此，很少有研究被认为是高质量的。

结论

尽管研究结果一致，但仍需要更多高质量、纵向和因果推理研究来提供明确的政策建议。此外，未来的研究应寻求了解工作条件、工作安排以及工作场所政策如何影响出勤率。