Self-Management Education May Help Reduce the $174 Billion Annual Cost of Diabetes
Type 2 diabetes accounts for 90% to 95% of the approximately 21 million cases of diabetes diagnosed in the United States. New cases of type 2 diabetes among middle-aged Americans doubled in the 30 years between 1976 and 2006. By 2007, the annual cost of diabetes in the United States was estimated at $174 billion. Medical expenditures alone were $116 billion:
 |
Diabetes care | $27 billion |
|
Chronic diabetes-related complications | $58 billion |
|
Excess general medical costs | $31 billion |
In 2007, medical expenditures for people with diagnosed diabetes were, on average, approximately 2.3 times higher than what those expenditures would have been in the absence of diabetes. Roughly 1 in 5 US health care dollars is spent caring for someone with diagnosed diabetes, and approximately $1 of every $10 spent on health care is attributable to diabetes.
People with diabetes who are admitted to the hospital for any condition have longer average stays, even after subtracting hospitalizations that can be attributed to the chronic complications of diabetes and controlling for other factors that can affect length of stay.
It seems clear that improved self-management is essential if progress is ever going to be made against the increasing prevalence of diabetes.
