Diabetes tied to early voluntary retirement from job, finds study

Finland: Type 1 diabetes (T1D) patients, on average, exit the labor force at earlier ages than people with type 2 diabetes (T2D), finds a recent study in the journal Diabetologia. These exits, on average, results in higher lost mean productivity costs and mean lost working years than in those with T2D. Since the complications contribute to an early exit from the labor force regardless of the type of diabetes, efforts should be made to prevent complications and to manage and diagnose diabetes in a timely manner. 

Diabetes and its complications are a cause of substantial morbidity that results in lost productivity and early exits from the labor force. Olli Kurkela, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland, and colleagues aimed to examine differences in early exits between people with type 1 and 2 diabetes and to assess the role of chronic diabetes complications on early exit. The researchers also estimated the economic burden of lost productivity due to early exits. 

The researchers detected people of working age (age 17–64) with diabetes in 1998–2011 in Finland using national registers (Ntype 1 = 45,756, Ntype 2 = 299,931). For the open cohort, data on pensions and deaths, medications, health care usage, and basic demographics were collected from the registers.

The outcome of the study was early exit from the labour force defined as pension other than old age pension beginning before age 65, or death before age 65. 

Reference:

The study titled, "Association of diabetes type and chronic diabetes complications with early exit from the labour force: register-based study of people with diabetes in Finland," is published in the journal Diabetologia.

DOI: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00125-020-05363-6