OBJECTIVES: Work and activity impairment represent important dimensions for assessing the burden of disease.  However, unlike some other patient-reported outcome measures, there are no population norms for work and activity impairment or studies that extensively compare impairment across conditions. The inability to compare against the broader population or to specific diseases or conditions can make it difficult for researchers to put the effect of a disease on impairment in a broader context. METHODS: Data came from the 2012 United States National Health and Wellness Survey (NHWS), a health survey of a nationally representative sample of adults (N=71,141).  The NHWS includes the Work Productivity and Activity Impairment (WPAI) questionnaire, which measures absenteeism, presenteeism, overall work impairment, and activity impairment.  Self-reported diagnoses of nineteen of the most disabling conditions as reported by the Centers for Disease Control were also collected.  Overall work and activity impairment estimates were calculated for both the full sample and each of the nineteen diagnoses.  RESULTS: In total, 50.7% of survey respondents were employed and provided information with respect to their work impairment; all respondents regardless of employment reported their activity impairment.  These adults were an average 44.20 years old (SD=13.52) and 52.6% were male.  The mean level of absenteeism, presenteeism, overall work impairment, and activity impairment was 3.49%, 12.91%, 15.01%, and 22.08%, respectively (SDs=13.88%, 21.98%, 24.96%, and 28.33%, respectively).  The highest levels of overall work impairment were observed for patients with AIDS (42.7%), broken bones (36.6%), and hernia or rupture (32.8%) whereas the highest levels of activity impairment were observed for patients with a hernia or rupture (53.9%),  kidney problems (48.5%), and back or spine problems (47.5%). CONCLUSIONS: These results help to provide some context for work and activity impairment by providing estimates for the overall population as well as for nineteen separate disease states/conditions.