CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

We performed a case-control study to a) assess the impact of diabetes on different social and economic variables in Argentina, and b) compare them with those recorded in non diabetic people (C). We compared cases with Type 2 diabetes with (T2DM-C, n=387) or without chronic complications (T2DM, n=387) and C (n=774) paired by age, gender and social context. Data were obtained by structured telephone interviews (March-April 2011) and from clinical records. Statistical analysis was done using ANOVA/Kruskal-Wallis and Chi-square (in proportions) tests. All subjects provided oral informed consent. In each group 54.8% were female. Diabetes duration in T2DM-C was significantly higher than in T2DM (8.1±8.4 vs. 10.8±9.0). T2DM-C had significantly lower salaries, higher monthly expenditures (with lower expenditure/income ratio), lower percentage of people with university degree, and higher hospitalization rate and resource consumption; they also lost more working days compared to T2DM or C. T2DM-C had significantly higher direct medical and indirect costs. The data show the heavy burden of diabetes and its complications for the patient, his/her family, health systems and society overall in Argentina. They also act as a warning to health authorities to strengthen the implementation of prevention strategies to reduce this burden. Quarterly direct medical (MC) and Non Medical (NMC) costs (median [interquartile ratio] (number of cases) MC C T2DM T2DM-C Physician office visit 24[12-48]190)48 [24-72] (201) 60 [24-96](208) Laboratory test 114[77-176](86)159 [104-214]154) 172[120-247](166) Drugs 217[61-473](77)676 [174-791](155)676[296-1,414] (181) Practices 200 [90-481] (116)159 [82-409] (125) 226 [130-583] (150) Hospitalizations1,456 [674-4,388] (15)453 [344-1,435](11)3,265 [1,473-6,569] (22) Subtotal 251 [72-666] (204) 573 [243-1,207](215)1138 [575-2,341] (213) NMC 10 [0-34] (414) 10 [0-40] (265) 20 [0-60] (277) P