The Health and Productivity Impact of Chronic Conditions Report: Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease that most frequently affects the knees, hips, lower back and neck, small joints of the fingers, and the base of the thumb and big toe. Osteoarthritis symptoms include joint pain, stiffness, and movement limitations. The findings from IBI’s series on the health and productivity impact of chronic conditions provide a scalable benchmark of what osteoarthritis costs employers and shows what they stand to gain from helping employees prevent, treat, and manage this condition. Overall, for every 1,000 U.S. employees, osteoarthritis in the workforce costs about $219,000 in excess healthcare treatments and lost work time. This does not include the value of returns to lost labor inputs, early exits from the labor force, excess turnover costs and presenteeism (underperformance on the job due to osteoarthritis).