Estimates of the Economic Costs of Diabetes Mellitus

Studies on the cost of diabetes are a common form of diabetes economic analysis in the literature. Most of the reports are specific to the United States experience, but a number of reports have emerged recently from other countries. The table below outlines the cost estimates reported in the literature.

The estimates outlined below have been applied to address many different arguments. Most often, though, they have been used to highlight the importance of diabetes to health care systems and health care insurers. A common twist on this argument is that these data provide evidence of the need to devote more resources to diabetes care.

Is the economic burden of diabetes significant? The estimates below clearly show that the cost of diabetes has likely risen substantially over time. Reports by the ADA and Rubin suggest that the medical costs of diabetes are significant.

One note of caution. It is tempting to use cost data in any effort to reduce the burdens of diabetes. One must be careful, though, in the means to which cost data are used to justify this end. Direct comparisons between the studies are usually not a good thing to do, because the methods used to estimate costs differ significantly between the studies.

Other Web Based Links:

• A Review of Diabetes Costs of Illness Studies, Abstract of a paper that reviews cost-of-illness studies for diabetes.

Cost figures shown are $ US billion unless otherwise specified

Study	Year	Country	Total Costs	Direct Costs	Indirect Costs
Metropolitan Life	1969	USA	2.6	1.0	1.6
Metropolitan Life	1973	USA	4.0	1.7	2.3
Metropolitan Life	1975	USA	5.3	2.5	2.8
Kuberski, Bennett	1976	Guam	$ 3 million	$ 600,000	$ 2.4 million
Metropolitan Life	1977	USA	6.8	3.4	3.4
National Medical Care Expenditure Survey	1977	USA	--	6.9	--
Policy Analysis, Inc.	1977	USA	10.8	3.7	7.1
Jonsson	1978	Sweden	1317 million kronor	568 mill. kronor	749 mill. kronor
Platt, Sudovar	1979	USA	15.7	5.6	10.1
Miller	1979	USA	12.4	7.4	5.0
Laing	1979-80	United Kingdom	144 million pounds	83.7 mill. pounds	60.6 mill. pounds
Metropolitan Life	1980	USA	9.7	4.8	4.9
Smeeding, Booton	1980	USA	18.9	5.7	10.0
Carter Center	1980	USA	--	7.9	--
Metropolitan Life	1984	USA	13.8	7.4	6.3
Gerard	1984	England & Wales	259-603 million pounds	239 mill. pounds	20-364 mill. pounds
Huse (NIDDM only)	1986	USA	19.8	11.6	8.2
Laing, Williams	1986-87	England & Wales	--	484 million pounds	--
Fox, Jacobs	1987	USA	20.4	9.6	10.8
Roesler	1988	USA (Minnesota)	300 million	190 million	110 million
Kegler	1990	USA (N. Carolina)	1.2	0.6	0.6
Phillips	1991	Mexico	$ 430 million	$ 100 million	$ 330 million
ADA	1992	USA	91.8	45.2	46.6
Rubin	1992	USA	--	105.2	--
Warner	1992	USA (Texas)	4.0	1.6	2.4
Gray (IDDM only)	1992	England & Wales	--	96 million pounds	113 million pounds
Stern (IDDM only)	1993	Israel	--	104,000 pounds/patient	--
Thom	1993	USA	20	15	5
Hart (IDDM only)	1994	Spain	--	8.1 billion pesetas	--
ADA	1997	USA	98.2	44.1	54.1
AIHW	2000-1	Australia	--	783.6 million $A	--
ADA	2002	USA	132	91.8	39.8

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