Measuring Depression to Manage it: Taking Action

Introduction  Depression  screening  in working populations provides information regarding depression  from two perspectives: as a driver of employee health and productivity loss AND as an outcome of contextual characteristics.    

Methods  Tests were conducted on the impact of depression severity on health and productivity loss, AND to separate the prediction of contextual characteristics on mild (pre-clinical), versus moderate to severe ( clinical ), depression.  Analyses were carried out on an international sample of 39,097 administrations of the Wellness Checkpoint®, a comprehensive health risk appraisal containing validated measures of depression and job performance.  Analyses included controls for demographic, personal, job and employer characteristics.          

Results  Just under 23% recorded depressive symptoms, with two thirds reporting pre-clinical symptoms.  Depression severity exerted large effects on general health and productivity loss, with the more prevalent mild group posting an aggregate loss that was more than 33% greater than the  moderate- severe group. Adverse personal life impact more strongly predicted moderate to severe depression, while factors amenable to employer health management efforts,  such as stress and modifiable health risks, better predicted mild depression.    

Conclusion  These findings document the full range of the burden of depression on employee health and productivity.   Understanding the  entire spectrum in depression’s predictive profile across levels of symptom severity allows to differentiate  the types of intervention,  from clinical care for severe depression to  employer health management programs, for pre-clinical depression.    

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