Statistical estimates of absenteeism attributable to seasonal and pandemic influenza from the Canadian Labour Force Survey

Table 1 Absenteeism and percent of hours lost due to own illness or disability attributed to influenza in employed persons 15 years of age and older

Season/Wave	Length of Period	% of Hours Worked that were Lost Due to Own Illness or Disability	% of Potential Hours Worked that were Lost Due to Own Illness and Attributed to Influenza¹	% of Hours Lost that were Attributable to Influenza	Estimated % of Employees Absent due to Influenza per Period (Wave/Season)¹
Seasonal	Annual (12 months)	2.9%	0.08%	3%	11.5%
H1N1/09	Pro-rated to annual (May09-April10)	3.1%	0.19%	6%	13.4%
H1N1/09
Spring	4 months (May-Aug09)	2.8%	0.12%	4%	2.9%
Fall	4 months (Sept-Dec09)	3.2%	0.47%	15%	10.5%
Oct-09	1 month	3.2%	0.59%²	18%	3.3%
Nov-09	1 month	3.9%	1.25%²	32%	6.7%²
Dec-09	1 month	3.0%	0.05%	2%	0.3%

¹ The attribution to influenza was estimated on an annual basis, as described in the methods sections. Monthly estimates were calculated as the model-predicted estimate less estimated baseline and agree with the influenza-attributed time series in Figure 4.
² The number of hours lost or number of absences reported for the indicated reference weeks were significantly above the estimated baseline (95% confidence level). The excess for these months is not shown in this table, though can be seen in Figures 4 and 5.

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