Abstract
We investigated the effects of an occupational mental health program, which was introduced into Company A since April 2002, by decision analysis of medical expenses and total salary compensation. The number of employee who developed depression increased from 41 to 133 comparing both three years. As a result, total salary compensation increased from \189,358 to \377,329 (thousand), and medical expenses increased from \22,160 to \42,589 (thousand), which means the Benefit/Cost was (-) 19.6. Since this extreme increase in cases reflected a socially unusual condition (economical depression), we estimated the cost if the Program had not been introduced. It revealed that the total salary compensation would have been from \189,358 to \614,258 (thousand), and the medical expenses would have increased from \2,216 to \71,884 (thousand). Therefore, the benefit/cost ratio would have been 24.6, which demonstrated that this program is excellent from the economical viewpoints. In this study, we evaluated only absenteeism or direct cost such as salary compensation and medical expenses. However, a further study needs to be done including presenteeism or indirect cost derived from impaired performance due to major depressive disorder.
