Incremental Burden on Quality of Life and Health Care Expenditures in Adults with Diabetes Complications: MEPS 2013–2015

Excerpt

The prevalence of diabetes in adults aged ≥ 18 years has increased from 13.0 million in 1998 to 23.0 million in 2015,^{1, 2} and is expected to reach 35.9 million (14.0%) by 2030 in the USA.³ The annual cost of diabetes was reported to be $245 billion in 2012, including $176 billion in direct medical cost and $69 billion in reduced productivity.⁴ Elevated blood sugar over a prolonged period of time can lead to many complications.⁴ As the prevalence of diabetes continues to increase, diabetes complications will continue to be a public health concern.³ Therefore, in this study, we estimated the treated prevalence of diabetes complications, evaluated the impact of diabetes complications on health-related quality of life (HRQOL), and quantified the incremental cost of diabetes complications using a large nationally representative sample of non-institutionalized adults with diabetes in the USA. …