"Figure 6: The gap between sickness absence rates for workers who report having a long-term health condition and those who do not is narrowing","" "Sickness absence rates, by long-term health condition, UK, 1997 to 2018","" "","" "Notes","" "Unit","%" "","" "Year","Long-term health condition","No long -term health condition" "1997","7.0","2.2" "1998","6.2","2.2" "1999","6.2","2.2" "2000","5.9","2.1" "2001","6.0","2.0" "2002","5.8","2.0" "2003","5.9","2.0" "2004","5.7","1.8" "2005","5.4","1.7" "2006","5.1","1.7" "2007","5.0","1.8" "2008","5.1","1.6" "2009","4.7","1.6" "2010","4.4","1.4" "2011","4.1","1.3" "2012","4.2","1.3" "2013","4.4","1.2" "2014","4.4","1.2" "2015","4.6","1.2" "2016","4.4","1.2" "2017","3.9","1.2" "2018","4.4","1.1"