Epidemiological characteristics, medical costs and healthcare resource utilization of diabetes-related complications among Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

Objectives: To estimate the direct medical costs (DMCs) and healthcare resource utilization (HRU) of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM)-related complications in China.

Methods: Data from a total of 74,507 patients were extracted from the 2015 China Health Insurance Research Association Claims Database. The complications determined by primary diagnoses were categorized into three groups: 1) for mild acute and local chronic complications, both outpatients and inpatients were considered; 2) for severe acute complications, only inpatiens were considered; 3) for systemic chronic complications, a 1:1 propensity-score matching was performed to calculate the incremental DMCs and HRU of preexisting and new-onset patients.

Results: Among the mild acute and local chronic complications, the DMCs and HRU per event were the highest for gangrene and laser treatment. Of the severe acute complications, the DMCs and HRU per event were highest for hyperosmotic nonketonic diabetic coma (HNDC), followed by severe hypoglycemia and ketosis. For systemic chronic complications, the DMCs and HRU associated with dialysis and myocardial infarction were the highest both in patients with new-onset complications and preexisting complications.

Conclusions: The estimated economic data are required for policy decisions to optimize resource allocation and to evaluate different approaches for disease management.