Medical Expenditures Associated With Diabetes Acute Complications in Privately Insured U.S. Youth

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Diabetes Care
• Personal Author:
  Shrestha, Sundar S. ; Zhang, Ping ; Barker, Lawrence ; Imperatore, Giuseppina
• 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.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Adolescent Child Diabetes Complications Diabetic Ketoacidosis Female Health Care Costs Humans Hypoglycemia Hypoglycemic Agents Insulin Male Original Research

  More +
• Source:
  Diabetes Care. 33(12):2617-2622.
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Volume:
  33
• Issue:
  12
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:cc080ea4eda55ef5a8dfdf2411e2901092ec15110129b33500c0fd11536a0fe6
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/4405/cdc_4405_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 83.94 KB ]