People with diabetes are often unable to work because of dangerously low blood sugar, a new survey shows.
The internet-based survey was carried out by Dr Meryl Brod of the Brod Group, California, USA, and her team. It covered 1,404 adults with type 1 and type 2 diabetes from the US, UK, Germany and France, who had reported a hypoglycaemic event in the previous month.
Symptoms can include pounding heart, trembling, hunger, sweating, difficulty concentrating or confusion.
Hypoglycaemia is common on some diabetes drugs. Insulin treatment is associated with one to three hypoglycaemic events per month. "Non-severe hypoglycaemic events" account for the majority.
Results showed that each event led to between 15.26 and 93.47 US dollars in lost productivity, and 8.3 to 15.9 hours of lost working time. Nearly one in five people who experienced an event were either late for work or had to miss a full day.
Loss of productivity was greatest when the event happened during sleep, in which case it caused an average of 15 lost working hours.
Dr Meryl Brod said: "Many people with diabetes struggle with hypoglycaemia on a regular basis. This not only has an impact on their working lives, but increases the need to self-monitor blood glucose levels."
Full results are published in the journal Value in Health. The authors conclude: "Non-severe hypoglycaemic events are associated with substantial economic consequences for employers and patients.
"Greater attention to treatments that reduce non-severe hypoglycaemic events could have a major, positive impact on lost work productivity and overall diabetes management."
Diabetes Week 2011 will take place from June 12 to 18.
Brod, M. et al. The Impact of Non-Severe Hypoglycaemic Events on Work Productivity and Diabetes Management. Value in Health, published online June 6, 2011.
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