Diabetes Cost U.S. $174B In 2007; Cases Continue To Rise

Diabetes cost the U.S. $174 billion in 2007 in both direct care and lost productivity, an increase over $132 billion in costs related to the disease in 2006, according to a report released on Wednesday by the American Diabetes Association, Richmond Times-Dispatch reports (Smith, Richmond Times-Dispatch, 1/24).

About one million people are diagnosed with diabetes each year, the report said. The condition costs almost as much as cancer, which totaled $206.3 billion in 2006, but fewer people die from diabetes than from cancer, USA Today reports.

The report also found that:

• About half of people with diabetes have health insurance through public health insurance programs;
  
  
• About half the cost of treating diabetes comes from inpatient care;
  
  
• Diabetes increases hospital stays for other conditions by almost 50%;
  
  
• Routine care to treat the condition has a relatively low cost; and
  
  
• Most of the cost comes when the disease is unmanaged (Szabo, USA Today, 1/24).

The report is available online (.pdf).

ABC's "World News" on Wednesday reported on the study. The segment includes comments from Ann Albright, president of ADA; Arthur Frank, medical director of the Weight Management Program at George Washington University Hospital; David Nathan, director of the Diabetes Center at Massachusetts General Hospital; and William Russell of Vanderbilt Children's Hospital (Stark, "World News," ABC, 1/23). A video excerpt of Nathan's comments is available online. Expanded ABC News coverage also is available online.