Chapter 6External Effects of Ill Health
However, when thinking about the importance of illness,
we also have to look at its impact on others in the society
as well as the person directly suffering. One of these “ex-
ternal effects” is the economic impact of mental illness on
the incomes of other people, since ill people are often re-
ceiving working- age disability benefits or sick pay, paid for
by other people. As is well known, at least 40% of people
on disability benefits have problems of mental rather than
physical health, and the same is true of absenteeism.^19 This
reflects the fact that mental health problems are as com-
mon among people of working age as among retired peo-
ple, whereas serious physical illnesses are largely illnesses of
retirement. This striking difference is illustrated in Figure
6.2— a standard World Health Organisation (WHO) analy-
sis in which the severity of different conditions is based on
weights determined by committees of experts. Data from
Percent7 6 5 4 3 2 1 00–14 15–29 30–44 45–59 60+Due to
mental illnessDue to
physical illnessFigure 6.2. Rates of morbidity in each age group