- At least 10 million workers have some chronic-degenerative disease.
- The most common reasons why a worker requests a disability are injuries such as: dislocations, sprains and strains, as well as respiratory diseases.
The Covid-19 pandemic revealed that at least 10 million workers suffer from diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, overweight and obesity, which in addition to the physical impact and vulnerability to respiratory diseases, particularly Covid-19, impacts companies in their competitiveness and the country’s economy.
According to the National Survey of Health and Nutrition 2018-2019, in the pre-pandemic stage in Mexico, there were 8.6 million people over 20 years of age who lived with Diabetes Mellitus, 15.2 million with Arterial Hypertension and 75.2% of the surveyed population reported living with overweight or obesity.
In addition, during the pandemic, 4.6 million disabilities have been granted due to Covid-19, which represented nearly 44 million lost working days; During 2021, 70.6 million days of disability due to illnesses and authorized accidents were registered for workers affiliated with the IMSS.
From 2017 to 2021, the Institute granted an average of 23,344 disabilities for work; Only last year the economic impact for the IMSS for this concept was 20 thousand 128 million pesos.
The most common reasons for which a worker requested a sick leave from work were: respiratory, musculoskeletal and connective tissue diseases, dislocations, sprains and strains. Fractures accounted for the largest expense in terms of subsidies for temporary incapacity for work.
The prevention of illnesses and accidents in the workplace is key to improving people’s health and by implementing measures to have healthy workers, the quality and productivity of the workplace is strengthened, the safety and health of the workforce is protected labor, which is the most important asset of any organization.
Faced with the scenario of deteriorating workers’ health, the IMSS prepares a strategy together with the business sector to promote preventive health and occupational risk actions in companies, in which the employer has the responsibility to collaborate in the application of regulations to protect the health of employees.
The strategy is based on favoring workplaces with a healthy approach to strengthen the culture of prevention, since the workforce is the pillar that supports health, the economy and society.
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