FRIDAY, Feb. 11, 2005 (HealthDayNews) -- Lost productivity and missed work time mean premenstrual syndrome (PMS) can greatly increase costs for employers, a new study finds.
The researchers, led by Dr. Jeff Borenstein of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, assessed PMS symptoms in 374 working women, aged 18 to 45. For two months, the women recorded any PMS symptoms, along with PMS-related missed work time and lost productivity.
Based on the diaries, the researchers concluded that 30 percent of the women had PMS. Those women also had an average of $59 more per year in insurance claims than women without PMS.
But the largest impact of PMS was on missed work time and productivity. Women with PMS had an average 14 percent reduction in expected work hours per week and a 15 percent reduction in work productivity, compared to women without PMS.
Overall, total indirect employer costs for women with PMS were about $4,333 more per year than for women without PMS, the study found.
The researchers estimated that in a health plan with 10,000 women aged 18 to 45, PMS would increase indirect costs by close to $13 million a year, along with $175,000 more in direct health costs.
Helping female employees cope with their symptoms would go a long way to reducing this fiscal burden, the researchers conclude. "Corporate benefits plans that support the use of clinically effective PMS therapies are likely to be a cost-effective investment," they wrote.
The study appears in a recent issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
More information
The U.S. National Women's Health Information Center has more about PMS.
