OBJECTIVE Recent studies suggest that diabetes may impact work productivity. In the current study, we sought to estimate the lifetime and population impact of diabetes on productivity using the novel measure of “productivity-adjusted life years” (PALYs).

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Using age-specific mortality rates and a productivity index attributable to diabetes (akin to the quality of life index, but which adjusts for reduction in productivity) and life table modeling, we estimated years of life and PALYs lost to diabetes among Australians with diabetes currently aged 20–65 years, with follow-up until 69 years. Life tables were first constructed for the cohort with diabetes and then repeated for the same cohort but with the assumption that they no longer had diabetes. The “nondiabetic” cohort had lower mortality rates and improved productivity. The differences in total years of life lived and PALYs lived between the two cohorts reflected the impact of diabetes.

RESULTS Overall, diabetes reduced total years of life lived by the cohort by 190,219 years or almost 3%. Diabetes reduced PALYs by 11.6% and 10.5% among men and women, respectively. For both sexes, the impact of diabetes on productivity was lowest in those aged 65–69 years and highest in those 20–24 years. Among the latter, PALYs were reduced by 12.2% and 11.0% for men and women, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS Elimination of diabetes can prolong life years lived by the whole population and increase the amount of productive years lived. Employers and government should be aware that having diabetes affects work force productivity and implement prevention programs to reduce the impact of diabetes on the workforce.

目的最近的研究表明，糖尿病可能会影响工作效率。在当前的研究中，我们试图使用“生产力调整的生命年”（PALYs）的新方法来评估糖尿病对生命的影响以及其对人口的影响。

研究设计和方法使用特定年龄段的死亡率和糖尿病引起的生产率指数（类似于生活质量指数，但会根据生产率的下降进行调整）和寿命表建模，我们估算了糖尿病患者的寿命和PALYs损失目前患有糖尿病的澳大利亚人年龄在20-65岁之间，随访至69岁。首先针对糖尿病人群构建生命表，然后针对同一人群重复其生命表，但前提是他们不再患有糖尿病。“非糖尿病”人群死亡率更低，生产率更高。这两个队列之间的总生命寿命和PALYs生存时间的差异反映了糖尿病的影响。

结果总体而言，糖尿病使该人群的总寿命减少了190,219岁，或将近3％。糖尿病使男性和女性的PALYs分别降低11.6％和10.5％。对于男女，糖尿病对生产力的影响在65-69岁的人群中最低，而在20-24岁的人群中最高。在后者中，男性和女性的PALYs分别减少了12.2％和11.0％。

结论消除糖尿病可以延长整个人口的寿命，并增加生产寿命。雇主和政府应意识到患有糖尿病会影响劳动力的生产率，并实施预防计划以减少糖尿病对劳动力的影响。