DIRECT MEDICAL COSTS OF TREATING DIABETES-RELATED COMPLICATIONS IN ARGENTINA

JORGE ELGART; GERMAN DE LA LLAVE; CECILIA CAMILLUCCI; GABRIELA VEGA-HERNANDEZ; M WATKINS ; ANNIE NIKOLAJSEN ; JUAN J GAGLIARDINO

Buenos Aires

Congreso; 4TH LATIN AMERICA CONFERENCE; 2013

OBJECTIVES: Diabetes is a chronic disease, which when not treated appropriately, leads to increased risk of developing preventable complications, increasing the cost of care. This represents a heavy burden for the public health budget in Argentina. The objective was to collect direct medical costs of treating diabetes-related complications in Argentina. METHODS: Following a literature review no data on the cost of diabetes-related complications were found in Argentina. To obtain robust data, we approached 3 local key opinion leaders from both social security (SS) and private (P) healthcare sectors with access to local databases; they covered 3 geographic areas of Argentina: Buenos Aires city (P) and Buenos Aires and Cordoba provinces (SS). Standardized forms were used for data collection and final values represent average cost of the SS and P sectors. Direct costs were classified into 6 groups: disease management, treatment of acute-events, renal-disease, eye-disease, neuropathy/foot ulcers and cardiovascular-complications. Values are presented in 2012 US-dollars per event occurring in the first year and annual follow up costs (exchange rate 1USD = 4.89ARS). RESULTS: The diabetes-related complications with highest first year average costs were renal-complications (renal transplant 37,833USD; peritoneal-dialysis 24,655USD and haemodialysis 23,748USD), followed by cardiovascular related events (myocardial infarction 5,939USD; congestive heart failure 4,884USD; peripheral vascular disease 4,200USD and angina 3,799USD). The cost of an amputation procedure was 2,727USD while those of prosthesis and post-amputation follow up were 3,255USD and 1,470USD, respectively. The cost of eye-laser therapy was 449USD while a cataract procedure was 1,186USD. High costs were also associated with treatment of neuropathy (1,141USD), infected foot ulcer (747USD) and gangrene (1,684USD). CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that implementation of prevention strategies to reduce the development of diabetes-related complications may decrease the diabetes burden on the health care budget. Furthermore the data presented will provide useful inputs for economic evaluations in Argentina.