OBJECTIVE -Cost-utility analyses use information on health utilities to compare medical treatments that have different clinical outcomes and impacts on survival. The purpose of this study was to describe the health utilities associated with diabetes and its treatments, complications, and comorbidities.RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS -We studied 2,048 subjects with type 1 and type 2 diabetes recruited from specialty clinics at a university medical center. We administered a questionnaire to each individual to assess demographic characteristics, type and duration of diabetes, treatments, complications, and comorbidities, and we used the Self-Administered Quality of Well Being index (QWB-SA) to calculate a health utility score. We then created regression models to fit the QWB-SA-derived health utility scores to indicator variables for type 1 and type 2 diabetes and each demographic variable, treatment, and complication. The coefficients were arranged in clinically meaningful ways to develop models to describe penalties from the health utility scores for nonobese diabetic men without additional treatments, complications, or comorbidities.RESULTS -The utility scores for nonobese diet-controlled men and women with type 2 diabetes and no microvascular, neuropathic, or cardiovascular complications were 0.69 and 0.65, respectively. The utility scores for men and women with type 1 diabetes and no complications were slightly lower (0.67 and 0.64, respectively). Blindness, dialysis, symptomatic neuropathy, foot ulcers, amputation, debilitating stroke, and congestive heart failure were associated with lower utility scores.CONCLUSIONS -Major diabetes complications are associated with worse health-related quality of life. The health utility scores provided should facilitate studies of the health burden of diabetes and the cost-utility of alternative strategies for the prevention and treatment of diabetes.

OBJECTIVE -To describe the direct medical costs associated with type 2 diabetes, as well as its treatments, complications, and comorbidities.RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS -We studied a random sample of 1,364 subjects with type 2 diabetes who were members of a Michigan health maintenance organization. Demographic characteristics, duration of diabetes, diabetes treatments, glycemic control, complications, and comorbidities were assessed by surveys and medical chart reviews. Annual resource utilization and costs were assessed using health insurance claims. The log-transformed annual direct medical costs were fitted by multiple linear regression to indicator variables for demographics, treatments, glycemic control, complications, and comorbidities.RESULTS -The median annual direct medical costs for subjects with diet-controlled type 2 diabetes, BMI 30 kg/m 2 , and no microvascular, neuropathic, or cardiovascular complications were $1,700 for white men and $2,100 for white women. A 10-kg/m 2 increase in BMI, treatment with oral antidiabetic or antihypertensive agents, diabetic kidney disease, cerebrovascular disease, and peripheral vascular disease were each associated with 10 -30% increases in cost. Insulin treatment, angina, and MI were each associated with 60 -90% increases in cost. Dialysis was associated with an 11-fold increase in cost. T he worldwide prevalence of diabetes is increasing (1), as is the demand for and cost of medical care (2). Many studies have described the economic impact diabetes has on the health system and society (3-6) and have compared the health care utilization of patients with and without diabetes (7-10). Only a few studies have assessed the relationship between patient characteristics, complications, and costs using patientlevel data (11-16) and most have examined the relationship for aggregated end points (12,13,15,16). The purpose of this study was to describe the relationship between direct medical costs and individual demographic characteristics, treatments, glycemic control, complications, cardiovascular risk factors, and comorbidities in patients with type 2 diabetes. CONCLUSIONSPrevious models have assigned costs to specific diabetes-related health states (17)(18)(19)(20). This approach is most appropriate for acute health states where interactions with other conditions are absent or clearly identifiable and of limited duration (21). A complex chronic disease like diabetes impacts many other apparently unrelated health problems and the resources used in their treatment. Therefore, it is important to extend the scope of a cost model beyond the direct complications of diabetes to include total direct medical costs. Only in this way can the true economic burden of diabetes be assessed. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS -The study was reviewed and approved by the University of Michigan Institutional Review Board. All subjects were enrolled in commercial, Medicare, or Medicaid managed care programs offered by a large Michigan health maintenance organization (HMO). Subjects thus represented ...

Factor analysis of student ratings validated the seven-category SFDP framework. An abbreviated instrument to measure the seven categories is described. Results suggest that students may not systematically distinguish between their teachers' knowledge and their teachers' ability to promote self-directed learning, an important finding for both administrators and faculty development programs.

Approximately one quarter of stroke patients correctly interpret their symptoms as representing a stroke. This knowledge is not associated with early presentation to the emergency department. Ambulance transport is independently associated with early arrival at the emergency department. Even when patients know that they are having a stroke, most present late because they perceive their symptoms as "not serious." Widespread public education of stroke-prone individuals may increase the proportion of patients eligible for new acute stroke treatments.

Lesions may be preventable with aggressive screening for peripheral neuropathy and abnormal lipids. Also, these results provide empirical support for the commonly held belief that foot lesions prospectively predict future wounds.