The cost of diabetes in Latin America and the Caribbean

Objective To measure the economic burden associated with diabetes mellitus in Latin America and the Caribbean. Methods Prevalence estimates of diabetes for the year 2000 were used to calculated direct and indirect costs of diabetes mellitus. Direct costs included costs due to drugs, hospitalizations, consultations and management of complications. The human capital approach was used to calculate indirect costs and included calculations of forgone earnings due to premature mortality and disability attributed to diabetes mellitus. Mortality and disability attributed to causes other than diabetes were subtracted from estimates to consider only the excess burden due to diabetes. A 3% discount rate was used to convert future earnings to current value. Findings The annual number of deaths in 2000 caused by diabetes mellitus was estimated at 339 035. This represented a loss of 757 096 discounted years of productive life among persons younger than 65 years (>US$ 3 billion). Permanent disability caused a loss of 12 699 087 years and over US$ 50 billion, and temporary disability caused a loss of 136 701 years in the working population and over US$ 763 million. Costs associated with insulin and oral medications were US$ 4720 million, hospitalizations US$ 1012 million, consultations US$ 2508 million and care for complications US$ 2 480 million. The total annual cost associated with diabetes was estimated as US$ 65 216 million (direct US$ 10 721; indirect US$ 54 496). Conclusion Despite limitations of the data, diabetes imposes a high economic burden to individuals and society in all countries and to Latin American and the Caribbean as whole.