Survey of working women links more use of health benefits to fewer absences

Oakland, CA — Women who use their employer-provided health benefits miss fewer days of work, results of a recent survey show.

Researchers from the Integrated Benefits Institute surveyed more than 1,000 female workers from a wide range of industries to learn how health benefits shape employee satisfaction. Among the findings:

• 89% of respondents agree that health benefits positively influence their overall workplace satisfaction.
• Preventive care was the most commonly used benefit, with 63% of the women accessing it, followed by mental health support (54%).
• The most-cited barriers to using benefits were cost, time constraints and scheduling difficulties.

The use of mental health benefits had the strongest association with reduced absenteeism, followed by reproductive health services and maternity care.

“This reveals a powerful link between mental health support and workplace attendance,” Sera-Leigh Ghouralal, lead researcher on the study, said in a press release. “The data shows that mental health benefits have the strongest correlation with reduced absenteeism among all benefits studied.”