[Health costs associated with the diabetic foot in developed countries.A plea for the creation of health care networks].

COST OF DIABETIC FOOT

A limited number of epidemiological and economical studies on diabetic foot in France is available. Studies conducted in other countries, namely USA, Netherlands, UK and especially Sweden, have evidenced major direct and indirect costs that generally are underestimated in overall economical cost of diabetes forecast. The rapid increase of diabetes prevalence throughout the world, combined with diabetic population aging, allows to speculate that this situation may dramatically worsen in the future. In order to reduce the economical and human burden of this complication, it is an urgent public health necessity in France to set multidisciplinary organisations, dealing with both in-patient care, which importance should be decreasing, and out-patient care, as well as prevention and foot care networks. The swedish experience figures an interesting model for our healthcare system.