Research Plus

Epilepsy, diabetes and risk of injury

There is no evidence that epilepsy or diabetes are contributing to workplace injuries, according to this nested case–control study of 8,000 working age people registered on the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink (an anonymised research database of NHS GP consultations), 1,348 of whom had seen a doctor with an occupational injury between 1987 and 2009. A total of 160 subjects had epilepsy (29 had experienced an occupational injury) and 199 had diabetes (34 injury cases). There was no significantly raised risk of occupational injury for those with epilepsy (odds ratio (OR) = 1.07; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.71–1.60) or diabetes (OR 1.01; CI 0.69–1.48). Research limitations include that the database only recorded doctor-treated injuries, not minor/self-treated cases, and that individuals with epilepsy or diabetes may have been excluded from some types of employment.

 Epilepsy, diabetes mellitus and accidental injury at work. Occupational Medicine 2014; online first: doi: 10.1093/occmed/kqu079. 

Tags diabetes evidence based practice gp - general practitioner injuries at work

Occupational Health at Work August/September 2014 (vol. 11/2) pp42