Impact of Diabetes onWork Cessation

OBJECTIVE—To measure the impact of diabetes on work cessation, i.e., on the risks of work disability, early retirement, and death while in the labor force. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—We used data from the GAZEL prospective cohort of 20,625 employees of the French national gas and electricity company “EDF-GDF.”We identified 506 employees with diabetes and randomly selected 2,530 nondiabetic employed control subjects matched for major socio-demographic and occupational characteristics. Using a multistate Cox model, we estimated hazard ratios (HR) comparing the risks of transition from employment to disability, retirement, and death over time between participants with versus without diabetes. RESULTS—Employment rate decreased more rapidly in participants with diabetes (51.9 and 10.1 % at 55 and 60 years, respectively) compared with nondiabetic participants (66.5 and 13.4%, respectively). Participants with diabetes had significantly increased risks of transition from employment to disability (HR 1.7 [95 % CI 1.0–2.9]), retirement (HR 1.6 [1.5–1.8]), and death (HR 7.3 [3.6–14.6]) compared with participants without diabetes. Between 35 and 60 years, each participant with diabetes lost an estimated mean time of 1.1 year in the workforc