Study: Undiagnosed Diabetes Costs $2,864 Per Person

WASHINGTON–Americans living with undiagnosed diabetes incur an
estimated $18 billion in health care expenditures each year, or
$2,864 per person in medical services and lost productivity from
diabetes-related complications, according to a new study by the
National Changing Diabetes
Program published in the journal Population Health
Management.
 
Undiagnosed diabetes represents 8.3 percent of the $218 billion
cost of diabetes and pre-diabetes estimated for 2007. “For the
first time we are beginning to get a sense of the total economic
burden of diabetes to our health care system and economy,” said
Timothy Dall of health care consulting firm The Lewin Group, which
conducted the study. “The cost is particularly astonishing, given
that a significant number of diabetes cases and related
complications are largely preventable.”
 
About 25 percent of the 23.6 million Americans living with diabetes
are not aware that they have the disease, according to the study.
Data also show the prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes increased
with age (until age 70) and was more common in men.
  
The cost of diagnosed diabetes was estimated at $174 billion in
2007. Pre-diabetes was associated with $25 billion in health care
expenditures, and gestational diabetes resulted in $623 million in
costs.