Chronic diseases in self-employed French workers.

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate occupations associated with a high risk of specific chronic diseases in self-employed workers. For each occupational category and gender, the observed and expected numbers of prevalent cases for each chronic disease leading to exemption from copayments by the French National Health Insurance System in 2001 were compared using the age-specific self-employed population rates as a reference. Dramatic discrepancies were observed depending on occupational categories, specifically for diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases, mental health disorders, chronic respiratory insufficiency, severe liver disorders, and connective tissue diseases. Based on this extremely large dataset, several known associations between occupations and specific diseases were confirmed; other potential associations observed require future investigation.