BACKGROUND Evidence has shown that children 0-4 year-old attending childcare are prone to acquire infections compared to children cared for at home, with fever being the most common symptom. Illness absenteeism due to fever and common infections is substantial and mostly driven by unrealistic concerns and negative attitude towards fever of both childcare staff and parents, resulting in illness ...

We used a deterministic SEIR (susceptible-exposed-infectious-removed) meta-population model, together with scenario, sensitivity, and simulation analyses, to determine stockpiling strategies for neuraminidase inhibitors that would minimize absenteeism among healthcare workers. A pandemic with a basic reproductive number (R0) of 2.5 resulted in peak absenteeism of 10%. Treatment decreased peak a...

Dear Editor, The global spread of emerging infectious diseases can strain resources and result in healthcare staff absenteeism, as was the case during the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in Singapore in 2003.1,2 The recent emergence of a novel infl uenza A (H1N1-2009) pandemic3 has again reminded us of the potential impact of such infections on hospital operating capacity.4 Sy...

OBJECTIVES To analyze absenteeism among healthcare workers (HCWs) at a large Italian hospital and to estimate the increase in absenteeism that occurred during seasonal flu periods. DESIGN Retrospective observational study. METHODS The absenteeism data were divided into three "epidemic periods," starting at week 42 of one year and terminating at week 17 of the following year (2010-2011, 2011...

BACKGROUND Acute respiratory infections (ARI) are a major cause of sickness absenteeism among health care workers (HCWs) and contribute significantly to overall productivity loss particularly during influenza epidemics. The purpose of this study is to quantify the increases in absenteeism during epidemics including the 2009 influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 pandemic. METHODS We analysed administrative d...

Healthcare providers working with people living with dementia often experience a profound sense of grief when the person they support dies or moves to an alternative level of care. Unattended staff grief can impact healthcare leaders by reducing quality of care, increasing staff turnover and absenteeism, lowering morale, and creating a greater risk of long-term staff health problems. Organizati...

BACKGROUND School closure is a key component of many countries' plans to mitigate the effect of an influenza pandemic. Although a number of studies have suggested that such a policy might reduce the incidence, there are no published studies of the cost of such policies. This study attempts to fill this knowledge gap METHODS School closure is expected to lead to significant work absenteeism of...