The financial vulnerability of individuals with diabetes

To quantify the impact of early retirement due to diabetes on the level and type of savings among those aged 45-64 years in Australia, the output dataset of the microsimulation model, Health&WealthMOD was analysed. Compared with those who are in full-time employment with no health condition, those who have retired early due to diabetes have significantly lower odds of owning any wealth (odds ratio 0.03, 95% confidence interval 0.00-0.30). Among those with any accumulated wealth, the value of this wealth is 90% less for people who are out of the labour force due to diabetes relative to those in full-time employment, after adjusting for age, sex and education (p=0.037). Retiring from the labour force early due to diabetes is likely to cause large financial stress in the future as not only have retired individuals lost an income stream from paid employment, but they also have little or no savings to draw upon.