Chronic disease and labour force participation in Australia: an endogenous multivariate probit analysis of clinical prevalence data

Reducing chronic disease has been identified as a priority for both health and labour force productivity improvement. The study estimated the influence of clinically diagnosed diabetes and cardiovascular disease on labour supply in men and women aged over 25 taking account of the observed and unobserved factors that influence both the risk of these chronic diseases and labour force participation. The results show that diabetes and cardiovascular disease together have a strong impact on labour market outcomes particularly for males, and that obesity, insufficient exercise, hypertension, lipid abnormality, smoking and parental diabetes all have a significant indirect effect on labour force participation.