New Studies State Economic Toll of Diabetes

By Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS, July 14, 2009. Posted August 26, 2009.
According to the American Diabetes Association, diabetes is “a disease in which the body does not produce or properly use insulin”, a hormone needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into energy. Both genetics and environment appear to contribute to causing diabetes, which is diagnosed when blood sugar levels (taken first thing in the morning and known as “fasting plasma glucose”) rise above 125 mg/dL (1).
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention states that more than 24 million Americans have diabetes and health care costs for diabetes in the U.S. exceed $174 billion per year (2). Now two new studies have highlighted additional health care costs of diabetes.
The first study (3) looked at the cost of diabetes during pregnancy, called “gestational diabetes”. This condition affects about 4% of all pregnant women and results in about 135,000 cases of gestational diabetes in the U.S. each year (4). The researchers found that the incidence of diabetes during pregnancy increases with age, affecting only 1.3% of pregnancies in women younger than age 21, but 8.7% of pregnancies after the age of 35. This resulted in an increased cost of $3,305 per pregnancy plus $209 in the newborn’s first year of life, giving a total cost of $636 million in 2007. Not only did the researchers state that diabetes during pregnancy is “a significant economic burden” but that “these estimates of the economic burden…are likely conservative” because they didn’t calculate the long-term healthcare costs.
The second study (5) looked at a condition called “Prediabetes”, where blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not yet high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes. The American Diabetes Association estimates that 57 million Americans have have pre-diabetes (6).  The study found that having prediabetes increased the cost of care by $443 per year per patient, giving a total cost of an extra $25 billion to our healthcare system in 2007. For the researchers, “Our findings strengthen the case for lifestyle interventions targeted at preventing diabetes by adding additional economic benefits that can potentially be achieved by preventing or delaying [prediabetes].”
References:

1. “All About Diabetes” posted on the American Diabetes Association website.
2. Number of People with Diabetes Continues to Increase” from the CDC Website.
3. Chen Y.  Cost of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus in the United States in 2007.  Population Health Management. June 2009, 12(3): 165-174.
4. “Gestational Diabetes” posted on the American Diabetes Association website.
5. Zhang Y.  Medical Cost Associated with Prediabetes.  Population Health Management. 2009, 12(3): 157-163.
6. “Prediabetes” posted on the American Diabetes Association website.