RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Sickness absence in diabetic employees at a large engineering factory. JF Occupational and Environmental Medicine JO Occup Environ Med FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd SP 299 OP 301 DO 10.1136/oem.51.5.299 VO 51 IS 5 A1 C J Poole A1 D Gibbons A1 I A Calvert YR 1994 UL http://oem.bmj.com/content/51/5/299.abstract AB It is not known whether employees who have diabetes mellitus lose more time from work due to sickness than non-diabetic employees. A study was undertaken to compare sickness absence in 91 diabetic with 91 non-diabetic employees matched for sex, age, and occupation. Although sickness absence was greater in the diabetic group this was not significant. Mean sickness absence for the diabetic employees and controls was 32 v 20 days/year (95% confidence interval -5 to 29 days). Because of the large variability in sickness absence in both diabetic and non-diabetic employees, a study of this size is probably not sufficiently powerful to detect a difference.