The impact of diabetes mellitus on healthcare costs in Italy

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus is an increasingly common chronic disease that has a great impact not only in terms of clinical effects, but also in terms of economic burden worldwide. Expenditures due to diabetes derive essentially from direct and indirect costs. Current estimates of global healthcare expenditures due to diabetes are US$376 billion and are expected to increase to US$490 billion by 2030. In particular, costs associated with diabetes-related complications represent the most relevant part of the national healthcare expenditure for diabetes and are higher than the costs of managing diabetes itself. The major expenditure depends on the type and the number of complications: cardiovascular complications increase direct costs, especially for hospitalization. Moreover, diabetic comorbidity has a greater economic impact on the health expenditure in comparison with those patients without diabetes. In Europe, the CODE-2 study was the first attempt to evaluate the costs of diabetes: the annual costs per patient were estimated at €2384 and the highest value, €2991, was registered in Italy. This indicates an overall annual cost of €5170 million for the whole Italian population with diabetes. Current estimates for 2010 healthcare expenditure for diabetes are US$105 billion (10% of total healthcare expenditure, US$2046 per person) for the whole European region, and US$11 billion (9% of total healthcare expenditure, US$2087 per person) for Italy. More studies are needed in order to better define the real significance of the healthcare costs of diabetes in Italy. An effective therapy with a good metabolic control can reduce the risk of complications and represents a valid strategy from an economic point of view.

Effect of Smoking Status on Healthcare Costs and Resource Utilization in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes in Routine Clinical Practice: A Retrospective Nested Case-Control Economic Study

“…This latter factor significantly increased the costs associated with diabetes by factors of 3, 5 and 10 when the patient had microvascular complications, macrovascular complications or both, respectively, compared with patients who had no complications. Giorda et al [45] suggested that effective therapy with good metabolic control can reduce the risk of complications and is an economically valid strategy. With the limitations mentioned above, our results are in line with all these results.…”

Clinical chemistry measurements with commercially available test slides on a smartphone platform: Colorimetric determination of glucose and urea

“…ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 5 While a variety of detection methods, including electrochemical [9][10][11], chemiluminescence [12,13] and fluorescence [14,15], have been investigated, comparatively simple colorimetric methods (which have a long history) are still attractive because the output of these assays can be visually observed and compared to a color chart to generate low-cost, rapid, semi-quantitative results. Truly quantitative detection of these paper based colorimetric reactions requires the use of bench top scanners [16] or cameras combined with computer-based image analysis software [17,18], or other sophisticated commercially available greyscale or color intensity measuring instruments.…”

“…Global healthcare expenditures for diabetes alone are expected to reach $490 billion by 2030, while the number of diabetes cases worldwide will double between 2000 and 2030 to over 400 million people [4,5].…”

The Effect of Family Psychoeducation on Burden of Care in Families with Type I Diabetic Children

“…Direct costs include costs of patient's hospitalization and care. Indirect costs involve income reduction, personal abilities decrease, long-term inability, and early death (5). Global burden of noncontagious diseases such as diabetes is considerably increasing.…”