Calling in sick to work may not seem like that big a deal. But it all adds up to the bottom line for employers statewide.

The study says more than 580-thousand work days are missed each year caused by three chronic illnesses: asthma, diabetes, and hypertension.

Jay Maddock from the UH Medical School's office of Public Health studies says, "When you look at cost to total productivity on the workforce, it's actually a fairly substantial portion of our gross domestic product."

Nationally the cost is more than 300 billion dollars a year. In Hawaii, it's estimated at 108 million dollars. The biggest culprit is asthma, which accounts for 78 million.

Maddock says, "A lot of it can be prevented if asthma patients take their medication regularly instead of just when they're feeling an attack. So when they're not feeling the tightness in their chest or the wheezing, they tend not to use their asthma medication. And really they should be using it every single day to make sure that they don't have these episodes that are gonna keep them out of work or possibly hospitalization."

As for diabetes and hypertension, Maddock says there are three basic things to help fight the two diseases: take brisk walks for at least 30 minutes everyday, don't smoke, and eat a healthy diet with lots of fruits and vegetables.

"It's really these three simple things that people can do to really make themselves a lot healthier, miss less work, be more productive, and lower all our health insurance costs."

Maddock says Hawaii's population in general has done well with not smoking and exercising, but is doing poorly with healthier diets, due to the continuing popularity of plate lunches.

He says employers can also help by allowing workers to take short walks during the workday, and providing healthy options at cafeterias and vending machines.