The present study relies on data for the years 1988 and 1989 from the Swedish continuous Surveys of Living Conditions (SLC), which are based on random samples from the population among individuals aged 16 through 84 years.

We compared the rates of self-reported mental health for subjects reporting diabetes (n=361), a musculoskeletal condition but without diabetes (n=2187), hypertension but without diabetes (n=980), and healthy free from any medical condition (n=6664).

Comparisons are based on age-and gender-standardized rates, using the diabetes group as standard.

The results show that more diabetic respondents had psychic symptoms and long-standing psychiatric disorders than the healthy respondents, with otherwise no differences compared to the other chronic conditions.

The diabetic respondents had lower mean disposable income, and a higher rate of disability pension than the respondents with hypertension, and than the healthy.

They also reported more sick leave days than the healthy respondents.