Burden of disease and out-of-pocket expenditures associated to type 2 diabetes and its complications in Argentina

ELGART J; GAGLIARDINO JJ ET AL

Berlín

Congreso; 48th EASD Annual Meeting; 2012

European Association for the Study of Diabetes

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: To assess a) the economic impact of diabetes on quality of life, disabilities and health utilities, on the income, employment, education and property of patients and their families, and b) the efficiency of medical care received by people with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) with and without complications in Argentina; c) to compare these costs with those recorded in people without diabetes. METHODOLOGY: Case-control study comparing cases with T2DM with or without chronic micro- and macrovascular complications and controls without diabetes (paired by age and gender) and social contexts. Data wERE obtained by telephone interviews (March to April 2011) using the same questionnaire except for a few questions related to diabetes treatment. Interview data were supplemented with data obtained from clinical records from each interviewee to fully describe the subjects’ resources utilization and costs of care. Data were statistically analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 15. Differences in means and proportions were verified using Student’s t-test, ANOVA and Chi2. The study had ethical clearance and all subjects provided oral informed consent. RESULTS: We interviewed 1908 patients (954 non diabetic controls, 477 people with T2DM without complications, and 477 people with T2DM and complications), mostly female (52.4%, 56.6% and 50.5%, respectively). Diabetes duration in the group with complications was significantly higher than in the group without complications (8.3 ± 8.6 vs. 11.1 ± 9.0). People with T2DM with complications had significantly lower salaries; a lower percentage of people attained university degree and showed higher hospitalization rate and resource consumption; they also lost more working days (14.3) than those with T2DM without complications (8.6) or without T2DM (8.8). CONCLUSION: This is the first report showing objectively the heavy burden of diabetes and its complications for the patient, his/her family, the health system and society overall in a Latin American country. The data are a serious warning for health care authorities to strengthen the implementation of prevention strategies to reduce this burden.