TABLE 2.

The association between mean annual number of sickness absence days across years 1990–1992 and mortality during 1993–2007 for employees with chronic conditions, the GAZEL study.

	Number of sickness-absence days
Sub-population	No. of absence days per person-year	No. of participants (No. of deaths)	Age-, sex-, and grade- adjusted hazard ratio (95% CI)	Age-, sex-, grade-, and co-morbidity adjusted hazard ratio (95% CI)
Cancer
	0	45 (4)	1.00	1.00
	>0–28	95 (7)	0.96 (0.28–3.30)	1.01 (0.29–3.51)
	>28	69 (26)	4.85 (1.66–14.14)	5.92 (1.98–17.76)
	AUC* (95% CI):	0.73 (0.63–0.82)
Diabetes
	0	140 (7)	1.00	1.00
	>0–28	227 (15)	1.26 (0.50–3.17)	1.24 (0.49–3.12)
	>28	64 (9)	2.68 (0.93–7.78)	2.35 (0.75–7.37)
	AUC* (95% CI):	0.60 (0.50–0.70)
Depression
	0	552 (30)	1.00	1.00
	>0–28	1433 (57)	0.83 (0.53–1.29)	0.80 (0.51–1.25)
	>28	591 (54)	1.99 (1.26–3.16)	1.74 (1.10–2.78)
	AUC* (95% CI):	0.56 (0.51–0.61)
Chronic bronchitis or asthma
	0	479 (25)	1.00	1.00
	>0–28	891 (56)	1.26 (0.78–2.03)	1.24 (0.77–2.00)
	>28	238 (37)	3.30 (1.93–5.64)	2.69(1.56–4.64)
	AUC* (95% CI):	0.60 (0.55–0.65)
CHD or cerebrovascular disease
	0	168 (16)	1.00	1.00
	>0–28	300 (23)	0.77 (0.40–1.46)	0.75 (0.39–1.44)
	>28	152 (21)	1.36 (0.70–2.64)	1.25 (0.64–2.43)
	AUC* (95% CI):	0.54 (0.47–0.63)
Hypertension
	0	766 (45)	1.00	1.00
	>0–28	1263 (71)	1.01 (0.69–1.48)	0.96 (0.65–1.40)
	>28	329 (38)	2.15 (1.36–3.38)	1.61 (1.00–2.60)
	AUC* (95% CI):	0.56 (0.51–0.60)

^*AUC (area under receiver-operating-characteristic curve) of >0.5 indicates ability of the measure to distinguish groups at risk of mortality.