Details:

Alternative Title:
Diabetes Care
Personal Author:
Shrestha, Sundar S. ; Zhang, Ping ; Barker, Lawrence ; Imperatore, Giuseppina
Shrestha, Sundar S. ; Zhang, Ping ; Barker, Lawrence ; Imperatore, Giuseppina Less -
Description:
OBJECTIVE

To estimate medical expenditures attributable to diabetes ketoacidosis (DKA) and severe hypoglycemia among privately insured insulin-treated U.S. youth with diabetes.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

We analyzed the insurance claims of 7,556 youth, age ≤19 years, with insulin-treated diabetes. The youth were continuously enrolled in fee-for-service health plans, and claims were obtained from the 2007 U.S. MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounter database. We used regression models to estimate total medical expenditures and their subcomponents: outpatient, inpatient, and drug expenditures. The excess expenditures associated with DKA and severe hypoglycemia were estimated as the difference between predicted medical expenditures for youth who did/did not experience either DKA or severe hypoglycemia.

RESULTS

For youth with and without DKA, respectively, predicted mean annual total medical expenditures were $14,236 and $8,398 (an excess of $5,837 for those with DKA). The excess was statistically greater for those with one or more episodes of DKA ($8,455) than among those with only one episode ($3,554). Predicted mean annual total medical expenditures were $12,850 and $8,970 for youth with and without severe hypoglycemia, respectively (an excess of $3,880 for those with severe hypoglycemia). The excess was greater among those with one or more episodes ($5,929) than among those with only one ($2,888).

CONCLUSIONS

Medical expenditures for potentially preventable DKA and severe hypoglycemia in U.S. youth with insulin-treated diabetes are substantial. Improving the quality of care for these youth to prevent the development of these two complications could avert substantial U.S. health care expenditures.


Subject:
[+]
Adolescent
Child
Diabetes Complications
Diabetic Ketoacidosis
Female
Health Care Costs
Humans
Hypoglycemia
Hypoglycemic Agents
Insulin
Male
Original Research

Source:
Diabetes Care. 33(12):2617-2622.
Document Type:
Journal Article
Collection(s):
CDC Public Access
Main Document Checksum:
[+]
urn:sha256:cc080ea4eda55ef5a8dfdf2411e2901092ec15110129b33500c0fd11536a0fe6
File Type:

Supporting Files

• 	license.txt	txt
  	zdc2617.nxml	txt

More +