diff --git a/src/unix/linux-core.c b/src/unix/linux-core.c
index 6cd5a7f0..11a67eb8 100644
--- a/src/unix/linux-core.c
+++ b/src/unix/linux-core.c
@@ -199,7 +199,7 @@ void uv__io_poll(uv_loop_t* loop, int timeout) {
       if (pthread_sigmask(SIG_BLOCK, &sigset, NULL))
         abort();
 
-    if (sigmask != 0 && no_epoll_pwait == 0) {
+    if (no_epoll_wait != 0 || (sigmask != 0 && no_epoll_pwait == 0)) {
       nfds = uv__epoll_pwait(loop->backend_fd,
                              events,
                              ARRAY_SIZE(events),