Economic impact of type II diabetes mellitus.

Diabetes is a dangerous, expensive disease with a major economic impact. The cost to the nation in 1984 was estimated to be $14 billion. We now believe the total costs approach $20 billion. Of this, $10.5 billion is guesstimated to be direct cost due to the diagnosis and treatment of the disease, while indirect costs (due to complications, work days lost, decreased productivity, and premature death) are about $9.5 billion. A typical patient with NIDDM and hypertension spends about $1000 per year for doctor visits, lab tests, oral diabetes tablets, blood pressure medications, lancets and blood test strips (4 per week), and miscellaneous expenses. NIDDM is clearly the major diabetes cost to the nation because it represents 85 to 90 per cent of all diabetes and because half the patients are undiagnosed and untreated. We believe the morbidity, mortality, and economic burden of NIDDM can be favorably affected by a concerted national effort as defined by the National Diabetes Advisory Board in its 1987 National Long Range Plan to Combat Diabetes. Finally, one must not forget the "other costs" of NIDDM, which are statistically unmeasurable: emotional costs, loss of freedom, inconvenient life style changes, and the permanent dependence on "others" (family, professionals, and so on) for help.