Erkrankungsprävalenzen und Leistungsunfähigkeit von Menschen in Arbeitslosigkeit in Deutschland

The fundamental association between unemployment and health problems has long been recognized. This raises questions about the most common illnesses among unemployed people and any resulting loss of productivity. The aim of the study is to present the 20 most common illnesses among unemployed people examined by the Medical Service (ÄD) of the Federal Employment Agency (BA) and to analyze any resulting loss of productivity for the (general) labor market and other associated factors.For this multi-year cross-sectional study study (2016-2021), the 20 most common diseases/ diagnoses from all (n=4,249,028) social medical assessments conducted by the Medical Service (ÄD) of the Federal Employment Agency were analyzed, along with the respective primary and secondary diagnoses based on ICD-10 codes and associated factors (gender, age, performance profile) from the ÄD databases. For data analyses descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression were used.Of the approximately 500,000 social medical assessments carried out by the MS each year, nearly all clients (2016: 90.1%; 2021: 99.5%) received a diagnosis. Depressive episodes (n=416,531; 10.2%), recurrent depressive disorders (n=415,651; 10.1%) and (other) anxiety disorders (n=169,112; 4.6%) belong to the most frequent diagnoses. Among the non-psychiatric disorders, back pain (n=243,389; 6.6%), (primary) hypertension (n=146,316; 4.0%) and (other) disc damage (n=91,861; 2.2%) occupy the top three places. Age and gender differed significantly depending on the disease. Overall, 33.9% of all assessed clients were classified as incapacitated (<3 hours/day), with mental illnesses being the most common reason for this, with schizophrenia being the most common at 63.6%).Mental disorders are particularly common among people who are unemployed. This should be taken into account in medical care and labor market integration to overcome both: unemployment and (psychiatric) illness. Keywords: Unemployment, illnesses, epidemiology, inability to work, long term unemployment.