Commissioned by the Chambre des Salariés in partnership with uni.lu, the 2016 report polled 1,500 people employed in Luxembourg.

Of those suffering health disorders, back issues affected a quarter, a fifth said they suffered from sleep disorders and a further fifth reported painful joints.

Altogether, over a quarter of people polled aged from 35 and upwards said they suffered from health problems.

The survey further revealed that 17.3% of workers were obese, and 31.6% were overweight, while 1.5% were underweight. Luxembourg’s Cancer Foundation recently reported that cancer rates could be reduced by more than 30% by limiting risk factors such as obesity, smoking and drinking alcohol. Workers were also polled on the latter in the survey.

It suggested that workers drank 3.5 glasses of alcohol per week, or 5.2 among the executive and directors polled, meanwhile over one in four employees (27.5%) smoked.

While the survey authors do not study connections with cancer rates in Luxembourg (2,400 new diagnoses per annum and 1,000 deaths), they do underline a correlation between physical effort, emotional strain, and harassment and health. Meanwhile, the authors found a positive correlation between job security and reduced risk of accident and health issues.

“Worker health issues have consequences for companies in general: workers suffering from serious health problems take a higher number of sick days, often want to change jobs and have lower levels of motivation and productivity,” the report authors wrote.

According to figures published by Statec, Luxembourg’s sick rate rose slightly from 3.6% in 2014 to 3.7% in 2015.