DIABETES-MELLITUS AND EMPLOYMENT - SURVEY OF A NEW-ZEALAND WORKFORCE

A cross-sectional survey of a 5670 multiracial New Zealand workforce a ged >40 years was used to determine the health status of people with d iabetes mellitus in employment. One hundred and two workers (73 men, 2 9 women) had known diabetes mellitus (prevalence of 1.8 %) of whom 91 individuals (89.2 %) had Type 2 diabetes. Mean age of diabetic workers was 51.1 +/- 5.6 (SD) years and median duration of disease was 5.0 (r ange 0-51) years. Most subjects were asymptomatic, although only 31.4 % of diabetic workers had fasting glucose concentrations and 35.5 % ha d fructosamine concentrations within the mean +/- 2SD range of a match ed control group. Moreover, 22.5 % of diabetic participants had fastin g hypertriglyceridaemia and 21.6 % had microalbuminuria. Ethnicity (no n-European vs European) and lack of insulin therapy were the most impo rtant predictors of poor glycaemic control. We advocate more aggressiv e therapy with insulin and with culturally sensitive education program mes to avert long-term macrovascular complications.