Top 3 Causes of Long Term Absence

On the back of the recently published CIPD / Simplyhealth report, I’ve done a quick trend analysis over the last three reports – see below.

In 2020 when the survey was done pre ‘Covid’, Mental Ill Health was in the Top 3 for 59% of respondents. It increased to 63% in 2023, but now stands at 41%.

In 2020, Stress was a Top 3 for 46% but now stands at 28%.

Why might this be?

Interesting that there is a new entry of neurological this year under the classification of other long-term conditions; this now includes cancer which for some reason was previously under acute conditions.

The category of Recurring medical conditions e.g. asthma, angina or allergies has disappeared after a one-off appearance in 2023.

With the changing of categories, I’ve asked the CIPD if they are able to share responses for specific conditions which would provide a more informative trend view.