Lower autonomy and higher job demands increased the association of several chronic health problems (mental illness, circulatory diseases, MSD, diabetes) with sickness absence (Leijten et al., An international study shows that diabetes is significantly associated with a 30% increase in the rate of labour-force exit across the 16 countries studied, and at the national level, this association is significant in 9 of 16 countries (Rumball-Smith et al., The association between diabetes and employment varies by disease gravity.