Economic Burden of Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract

Diabetic prevalence has raised faster in low and middle income countries than in high income country. There were 1.16 million cases of diabetes in Sri Lanka. Direct, indirect and intangible economic costs are affecting for diabetes patients. Therefore the purpose of this study was to determine the economic burden of diabetes. The data were obtained from a cross sectional survey conducted through a structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics including mean, standard deviation, frequency, proportion, range and percentage and inferential statistics comprising χ2 test, T test and logistic regression were used to analyze the data using SPSS and Excel. Average treatment cost was significantly higher in the urban community than in the rural area. Both direct and indirect costs were significantly higher in the urban community than in the rural community. Cost of treatment was significantly higher [χ2=18.67 p=0.028] among the urban diabetic patients with longer duration but it was not significant in rural community. The total productive day lost by employed type-2 diabetics was in rural area was 17% while in urban area it was 23%. The research has identified that urban area people suffer from diabetic mellitus than rural area. As well as urban area people had the greatest burden than the rural area people.