Diabetes Dateline
Spring/Summer 2008

Diabetes Costs Continue to Rise

Prevention Key to Controlling Future Increases

Primary prevention is an effective long-term strategy for combating escalating health costs related to diabetes care and treatment, according to National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) Director Griffin P. Rodgers, M.D., M.A.C.P.

Although the landmark Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) established that the incidence of type 2 diabetes could be reduced 58 percent with intensive lifestyle interventions, wider application of the DPP lifestyle, including diet and exercise, could yield enormous savings, Rodgers said at a congressional briefing on diabetes costs earlier this year. The briefing was prompted by an American Diabetes Association (ADA) study that reported diabetes cost Americans $174 billion in direct and indirect costs in 2007, a 32 percent increase from 2002.

According to the study, one out of every five health care dollars is spent caring for someone with diagnosed diabetes. Because an additional estimated 6 million people are undiagnosed, the actual costs of diabetes may greatly exceed $174 billion. The study also did not account for health costs associated with the 57 million Americans who have pre-diabetes.

The study estimated the economic impact of indirect costs to be $58 billion when accounting for reduced productivity of both those in the labor force and unpaid workers, unemployment from disease-related disability, and increased absenteeism.

Rodgers highlighted NIDDK initiatives aimed at preventing diabetes, such as a program of translational research grants to prevent and control diabetes and obesity; the HEALTHY study, aimed at reducing type 2 diabetes risk factors among minority middle school students; and the National Diabetes Education Program, which launched the first-ever national diabetes prevention campaign.

Rodgers said short-term solutions for decreasing diabetes-related health costs include reducing barriers to treatment and encouraging appropriate therapy.

An editorial entitled “The Economic Imperative to Conquer Diabetes,” co-authored by Rodgers and Judith Fradkin, M.D., director of the Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolic Diseases at the NIDDK, was published in the March 2008 issue of Diabetes Care. The issue also includes the ADA report about diabetes costs entitled “Economic Costs of Diabetes in the U.S. in 2007.”

[Top]

NIH Publication No. 08–4562
August 2008