College of Pharmacy and Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyungpook National University, Daehak-ro 80, Buk-gu, Daegu, 41566, Republic of Korea.
NDnex, Saebitgongwon-ro 67, Gwangmyeong-si, Gyeonggi-do, 14348, Republic of Korea.
BMC Public Health. 2021 Mar 20;21(1):548. doi: 10.1186/s12889-021-10450-3.
Diabetes leads to severe complications and imposes health and financial burdens on the society. However, currently existing domestic public health studies of diabetes in South Korea mainly focus on prevalence, and data on the nationwide burden of diabetes in South Korea are lacking. The study aimed to estimate the prevalence and economic burden of diabetes imposed on the South Korean society.
A prevalence-based cost-of-illness study was conducted using the Korean national claims database. Adult diabetic patients were defined as those aged ≥20 years with claim records containing diagnostic codes for diabetes (E10-E14) during at least two outpatient visits or one hospitalization. Direct costs included medical costs for the diagnosis and treatment of diabetes and transportation costs. Indirect costs included productivity loss costs due to morbidity and premature death and caregivers' costs. Subgroup analyses were conducted according to the type of diabetes, age (< 65 vs. ≥65), diabetes medication, experience of hospitalization, and presence of diabetic complications or related comorbidities.
A total of 4,472,133 patients were diagnosed with diabetes in Korea in 2017. The average annual prevalence of diabetes was estimated at 10.7%. The diabetes-related economic burden was USD 18,293 million, with an average per capita cost of USD 4090 in 2019. Medical costs accounted for the biggest portion of the total cost (69.5%), followed by productivity loss costs (17.9%), caregivers' costs (10.2%), and transportation costs (2.4%). According to subgroup analyses, type 2 diabetes, presence of diabetic complications or related comorbidities, diabetes medication, and hospitalization represented the biggest portion of the economic burden for diabetes. As the number of complications increased from one to three or more, the per capita cost increased from USD 3991 to USD 11,965. In inpatient settings, the per capita cost was ~ 10.8 times higher than that of outpatient settings.
South Korea has a slightly high prevalence and economic burden of diabetes. These findings highlight the need for effective strategies to manage diabetic patients and suggest that policy makers allocate more health care resources to diabetes. This is the first study on this topic, conducted using a nationally representative claims database in South Korea.
糖尿病会导致严重的并发症，给社会带来健康和经济负担。然而，目前国内对韩国糖尿病的公共卫生研究主要集中在患病率上，缺乏韩国全国糖尿病负担的数据。本研究旨在评估韩国社会糖尿病的患病率和经济负担。
采用韩国国家索赔数据库进行基于患病率的疾病成本研究。糖尿病患者定义为年龄≥20 岁，至少有两次门诊或一次住院记录中包含糖尿病（E10-E14）的诊断代码。直接成本包括糖尿病诊断和治疗的医疗费用以及交通费用。间接成本包括因发病和过早死亡导致的生产力损失成本以及照顾者的成本。根据糖尿病类型、年龄（<65 岁与≥65 岁）、糖尿病药物、住院经历以及是否存在糖尿病并发症或相关合并症进行亚组分析。
2017 年韩国共诊断出 4472133 例糖尿病患者。估计糖尿病的年平均患病率为 10.7%。2019 年，糖尿病相关经济负担为 182.93 亿美元，人均成本为 4090 美元。医疗费用占总费用的最大部分（69.5%），其次是生产力损失成本（17.9%）、照顾者成本（10.2%）和交通费用（2.4%）。根据亚组分析，2 型糖尿病、存在糖尿病并发症或相关合并症、糖尿病药物和住院治疗是糖尿病经济负担的最大组成部分。随着并发症数量从一个增加到三个或更多，人均成本从 3991 美元增加到 11965 美元。在住院环境中，人均成本是门诊环境的 10.8 倍左右。
韩国的糖尿病患病率和经济负担略高。这些发现突出了管理糖尿病患者的有效策略的必要性，并表明决策者需要为糖尿病分配更多的医疗资源。这是在韩国使用全国代表性索赔数据库进行的关于该主题的第一项研究。
