The economic cost of stress: 2010

Résumé du document

According to Di Martino, 1992 and Cox, 1993; stress is the result of an interactive process between the individual and the situation, meaning a perceived imbalance between demands and available resources needed to cope with them (Hoel, Sparks & Cooper). Problems of stress, especially at work, are more and more discussed through the whole world, as stress is generally recognized as badly affecting people, creating both physical and psychological negative effects or even conditions (Cox et al., 2000).

These damages to global health are costly for people, organizations and societies; numerous studies have been conducted by scientists or organizations such as the International Labor Organization, in Geneva, in order to determine the economic cost of stress. However the employed methods are very different and the results are only estimations, aiming at attracting or shocking readers (Grosjean, Trontin et al., 2005).

In this paper we will first define the notion of economic cost of stress, then expose a few statistics coming from various studies and explain how calculations can be made and what variable are to be included. We will finally explain why this notion is particularly difficult to quantify.

Extraits

[...] For the authors, the most accurate way of quantifying the total economic cost of stress would be to act in an inductive manner, meaning adding the costs of all the elements. Another method, said to be less efficient, would be to use the deductive manner, getting general information and then calculating how much from this cost comes from stress. However, just like any other model, this one has also lots of limitations. According to the authors, as far as individuals are concerned, it is too difficult to estimate the total cost of stress, for data on which calculations should be based are often of poor quality (Castillo, 1995), intangible costs may represent a loss of money but are very difficult to quantify, and the cause / consequences relationships between negative outcomes and stress are often unclear; furthermore, no comparison can be made between organizations or countries due to huge external differences (Chappell & Di Martino, 2000). [...]

[...] Health centers or drugs companies make profit and provide jobs from selling services or products which respond to diseases related to stress. The net economic cost of stress should be adequately derived from gross costs of stress, partially lowered by stress related revenues. References Béjean S., Sultan-Taïeb H. (2005) “Modeling the social cost of diseases imputable to stress at European Journal of Health Economics 16-23 Phyllis Gabriel Brun J-P., Lamarche C., Évaluation des coûts du stress au travail, Rapport de recherche, Université Laval, Québec, Canada Castillo, D.N. (1995) “Non-fatal violence in the workplace: Directions for future research”. [...]

[...] London: HMSO. Cox, T., Griffith, A. & Rial-Gonzalez, E. (2000) Research on Work-related stress. Luxembourg: European Agency for Safety and Health at Work. Di Martino, V. (1992) “Occupational Stress: A preventive approach”. In ILO Conditions of Work Digest, 11/2, (p3-21) Geneva: ILO. Grosjean, V., Trontin C. et al. [...]

[...] In C.Block & R.Block (Eds). Trends, Risks and Interventions in Lethal Violence: Proceedings of the Third Annual Spring Symposium of the Homicide Research Working Group (p225-235), Washington, DC: US Department of Justice. Chappell, D. & Di Martino, V. (2000) Violence at Work. Second Edition. Geneva: International Labour Organisation. Cox, T. (1993) Stress Research and Stress Management: Putting Theory to Work. HSE Contract Research Report, NO 61. [...]

[...] (2005) Convergences entre santé et travail et préoccupations managériales de l'entreprise : entre idées fausses et pistes prometteuses ? Performance juil-août, pp. 21-25 Hoel, H., Sparks, K. & Cooper, C.L., cost of violence/stress at work and the benefits of a violence/stress-free working environment”, Report Commissioned by the International Labour Organization (ILO) Geneva Levi L. & Lunde-Jensen P. (1995) model for assessing the costs of stressors at national level: socio-economic costs of work stress in two EU members states”. [...]