Costi e profili di trattamento farmacologico nei pazienti con diabete di tipo 2: i risultati dello studio CODE-2

[Type 2 diabetes in Andalusia: Resources use and economic cost]

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Previous studies that quantify the cost of type 2 diabetes (DM2) show very different results. We set out to define the profile of the patient with DM2 in Andalusia, analyze the use of health resources and quantify their economic cost during 2022.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Multicenter, cross-sectional and descriptive study. Three hundred and eighty-five patients with DM2 from Andalusia (confidence level: 95%; error: 5%).

DATA ANALYZED

age, sex, attendance at primary care (PC), nursing, emergency and hospital specialty consultations; consumption of drugs in general and antidiabetics in particular, blood glucose strips, complementary tests and hospitalization days.

RESULTS

Mean age: 70.7 ± 12.44 years; 53.6% men. Care contacts: PC physician: 8.36 ± 4.69; nursing: 7.17 ± 12; hospital visits: 2.31 ± 2.38; emergencies: 1.71 ± 2.89; hospitalization days: 2.26 ± 6.46.

LABORATORY TESTS

3.79 ± 5.45 and 2.17 ± 3.47 Rx. Drugs consumed: 9.20 ± 3.94 (1.76 ± 0.90 antidiabetics). Blood glucose strips: 184 ± 488. Annual cost: 5171.05 €/patient/year (2228.36 € for hospital admissions, 1702.87 € for drugs and 1239.82 € for assistance and complementary tests).

CONCLUSIONS

The DM2 Andalusian is 71 years old, consumes 10 different drugs and treats DM2 with double therapy. He has been 20 attendances/year (75% in PC), 4 analyses, 2 X-rays and requires 2 days of hospitalization. Direct healthcare costs goes over 5000 €/year. This represents 41.66% of the budget of the Andalusian Ministry of Health and triples the average cost per habitant.

[The cost of type 2 diabetes in Spain: the CODE-2 study]

OBJECTIVE

To estimate the cost of providing health care to patients with type 2 diabetes, by differentiating costs of the disease, costs of complications, and other unrelated health costs.

METHODS

Data on resource use were retrospectively collected from medical records and personal interviews in 29 primary health care centers in Spain. Patients were randomly selected from each center's diabetes registry.

RESULTS

We evaluated 1004 patients (561 women) with a mean age of 67.42 years and a mean disease duration of 10.07 years. A total of 50.9% had no complications, 17.7% had macrovascular complications only, 19.5% had microvascular complications only and 11.9% presented both types of complication. The annual health cost per patient was 1305.15 euros. Of this cost, 28.6% (373.27 euros) was directly related to diabetes control, 30.51% (398.20 euros) was related to complications of the disease, and 40.89% (533.68 euros) was unrelated. The mean cost of patients with no complications was 883 euros compared with 1403 euros for those with microvascular complications, 2022 euros for those with macrovascular complications and 2133 euros for patients with both types of complication.

CONCLUSIONS

Because of the high cost of treating type 2 diabetes and its complications, preventive measures should be implemented and control of the disease should be improved to reduce the costs associated with chronic complications.