Type 2 diabetics who have a permanent job better adhere to medical recommendations and take medication regularly compared to unemployed diabetics, according to a study published in the journal Health Outcomes Research in Medicine.
Unfortunately, people of working age with diabetes are more likely to be unemployed than their non-diabetic peers, the authors emphasize.
Researchers at the University of Michigan came to this conclusion after analyzing data collected from a group of 2256 adults with diabetes, aged 24 to 59. This group was representative of the American working-age diabetes type 2 diabetic population. It was selected after excluding diabetics working seasonally, retired, studying, pregnant women and those who already had to use insulin.
If the patient took drugs for more than 80 percent. days, doctors considered that she was following her doctor’s recommendations.
It turned out that diabetics not working by 25 percent. they followed the oral anti-diabetic medication swallowing recommendations less frequently than those in employment.
According to the researchers, these results indicate that, compared to diabetics with a permanent job, unemployed diabetics are much more likely not to take oral diabetes medications regularly as prescribed by their doctor.
As the lead author of the study, Rajesh Balkrishnan, emphasizes, the fact that unemployed people have worse compliance with medical recommendations for taking diabetes medications is largely due to lack of financial resources, stress caused by unemployment, and lack of access to medical care.
Scientists remind that diabetes is one of the most common chronic diseases in people of working age – in the USA and beyond. It ranks seventh on the list of causes of human death in the world and eighth on the list of the most costly diseases to treat.
According to the estimates of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), in 2011 the global costs of treating diabetes and preventing its complications amounted to 465 billion dollars.
In the latest research, 34 percent were unemployed during the first interview. diabetics, and 29 percent. of them were unemployed throughout the 2 years of the study. The most common reasons were that they were waiting for a new job (73%) and that they were unable to work due to illness or disability (20%).
In Poland, as many as two thirds of patients with type 2 diabetes (the most common form of diabetes) and every tenth adult suffering from type 1 diabetes (which most often occurs in children and adolescents) are not professionally active due to their disease, diabetologists estimate.
This problem was raised, among others, by at a conference organized on November 14, 2011 as part of the World Diabetes Day. They emphasized then that this is a huge crowd of people, because about 2,6 million people in Poland suffer from diabetes, of which 85% are patients with type 2 diabetes.
In the opinion of Polish diabetics, one of the most important reasons for high unemployment among Polish diabetics is the low awareness of employers about this disease. They often consider diabetics inferior and less efficient, although this belief is not confirmed by research conducted in the world, including in Canada. (PAP)
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