- Lowest average number of workdays: arthritis/rheumatism at 6.65 days, but most prevalent disease causing functional limitation.
- Next two, chronic lung disease at 9.84 and chronic diabetes at 10.43 days.
- Highest workday loss: cancer at 37.32 days
- Mean number of workdays lost increases with more conditions with functional limitations experienced by an individual.
***Strokes and cancer are less prevalent than the rest but have high severity, leading to significant absenteeism.

University of Notre Dame

Results show a significant correlation between functional limitation due to chronic disease and lost workdays. For every 3 days lost by someone without functional limitations, 7 days are lost for those with such. 

Main Result of Absenteeism Due to Functional Limitations of Chronic Diseases (Vuong Paper)

Vuong, T. D., Wei, F., &amp; Beverly, C. J. (2015). Absenteeism due to functional limitations caused by seven common chronic diseases in US workers. Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine, 57(7), 779–784. https://doi.org/10.1097/jom.0000000000000452 

Absenteeism Due to Functional Limitations Caused by Seven Common Chronic Diseases in US Workers

Statistics Concerning Lost Workdays for Those with Functional Limitation Chronic Diseases

- Based on the 2011-2013 National Health Interview Survey, 6.2 million full-time employees suffered from one of the seven functional limitation chronic diseases. 
- Arthritis/rheumatism caused 5.1 million employees to lose 19,411,385 workdays per year (roughly $3.54 billion per year).
- Only 1.8% of individuals had functional limitations related to cancer, but it was the second highest in loss of workday and income.
- The seven chronic diseases led to 28.2 million workdays lost, equating to roughly $4.95 billion dollars of lost income.
- For those with two or more chronic diseases and functional limitations, there is a 2.5 fold increase in the number of workdays lost compared to those with one functional limitation disease (and 5.9 fold increase compared to those without limitations in general).

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