Las incapacidades temporales como factor de ineficiencia y desperdicio en el Sistema de Salud Colombiano (fase 1)[Temporary Disability as a Factor of Inefficiency and Waste in the Colombian Health System (Phase 1)]

This working paper describes the temporary disability in Colombia in the period 2016-2018, a retrospective cross-sectional observational study was conducted. Temporary disability records reported by the Ministry of Health and Social Protection for the periods 2016 to 2018 were analyzed. A total of 12,410,837 records of formal workers aged 18 to 70 years affiliated to the Health System and with at least one episode of temporary disability in the study period were processed. A descriptive uni- and bivariate statistical analysis was performed, which allowed estimating the percentages for the study variables: sociodemographic (sex, age, age groups), work-related and disability-related. Most of the temporary disabilities corresponded to female and the average age was 37.11 years for both genders; the number of temporary disabilities per person increased slightly over the three years of study, ending at 2.4 for 2018. Most of the temporary disability (92%) were of dependent contributors (workers) and 6% of self-employed workers. The temporary disability rate was higher in employees. By age group, the highest rate corresponded to young workers, adults, adolescents and the lowest to older workers. By income level, less temporary disability occurred in high-income workers, while the highest rate of temporary disability occurred in the self-employed category. By geographic region, the Pacific region and the Andean region had the highest rate of disability in most of the variables analyzed. In relation to the diagnoses by systems, it was found that the greatest number of temporary disability (38%) in both men and women corresponded to the musculoskeletal system (Chapter XIII). In relation to the disease burden groups, non-communicable diseases were in first place with more than 50% of the temporary disability.