Diabetes and Endocrinology

Biography

Biography: Sakir Ozgur Keskek

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a common chronic metabolic disease associated with serious complications and significant economic burden. We aimed to investigate direct medical costs of DM and diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). A total of 136 diabetes patients were included in this retrospective study. The study group consisted of 64 patients with DKA and the control group consisted of 72 diabetes patients without any complications. Invoices of all patients were obtained from the billing department of the institute. The direct medical cost of each patient was calculated according to the costs of drugs (oral anti-diabetics, insulin preparations, antibiotics, intravenous fluids), equipments (catheters, syringes, blood glucose strips), and cost of services (hospitalisation fee, venous access, injection, laboratory services, radiological imaging) in United States Dollars. MedCalc 12.7 software program was used for statistical analyses. Patients with DKA were younger than the patients with diabetes mellitus (35.0±11.1 vs. 54.7±13.2, p<0.001). The groups were comparable according to gender (p=0.17). Costs of drugs and equipments of the study and control groups were 165.4±62.2 and 141.9±62.3, respectively. Costs of services were 323.6±141.3 and 253.6±115.0, respectively. Both of the costs were higher in patients with DKA. The differences were statistically significant (p=0.03, p=0.002, respectively) HbA1c levels were higher in DKA group (10.2±1.1 vs 9.4±1.4; p<0.001). HLOS (hospital stay) of groups were comparable (4.3±1.5 vs 4.5±1.0 days; p=0.3). Diabetes imposes a high economic burden on individuals and societies since a substantial amount of money is spent for this disease and its complications worldwide.