Study: The burden of diabetes in Europe
25.01.12
Currently 32 million people in the EU have diabetes, with this figure set to grow to 38.3 million by 2030. Treating diabetes and its complications takes up between 10% and 18.5% of EU member States healthcare budgets.
According to a new study released today by London School of Economics (LSE), the rise in diabetes prevalence is driven by:
• Increasing obesity,
• Ageing populations
• Change in ethnic distribution
In order to investigate these growing costs and understand how diabetes is being managed, the LSE have conducted a study aimed at identifying and comparing diabetes burden of disease, costs (direct and indirect) and diabetes outcomes, focusing on complications across France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK (EU5).
The study shows clearly that diabetes is under-diagnosed and under-treated.
Furthermore, it finds that the direct national cost burden of people with diabetes vary substantially across countries, predominantly driven by prevalence, but also due to a higher per patient cost in France, Germany and the UK; contributing to a total of €90 billion in 2010.
The recommendations of the study to ease the burden of diabetes in Europe are the following:
At national level
Establishing diabetes registries, expanding prevention strategies, encouraging tailored high screening programmes to identify patients at an earlier stage and improving primary healthcare to increase adherence.
At European level
Under the mandate of article 168 of the Lisbon Treaty, the European Union should facilitate the sharing of best practice between countries; monitor and report on data related to cost, prevalence, outcomes, and complications; establish criteria for standardised data that is comparable between Member States; monitor and report on national policies to manage diabetes in order to facilitate and support best practice sharing amongst Member States. The above could be achieved via the establishment of a European Diabetes Observatory.
Read the full report on the LSE website, here.
