concerning the effects on sick leave the analysis carried out on australia germany mexico and the united states suggests that obesity and smoking increase sickness absence but with exceptions for male overweight in the united states and for smoking in australia and germany see table in annex c concerning the impact on wages oecd analyses based on australian and us data show that when significant differences are found the general pattern among these shows a negative effect of cvd and diabetes on wages particularly clear for diabetes see table in annex c regarding the effect of chronic diseases on sick leave the analyses were only feasible in australia mexico and united states overall results show that chronic diseases such as diabetes cancer and arthritis increase sick days while this is unclear for cvd and hbp in the three countries studied see table in annex c for instance us women who smoke are times more likely to exit prematurely from the labour force compared to nonsmoking women and similar findings are found for men