High Costs of Peripheral Neuropathy
posted 08/25/03
Nineteen billion cost for peripheral neuropathy, most of it preventable with early diagnosis and treatment.

Peripheral neuropathy occurs in an estimated 59% of people with type 1 diabetes and 49% of people with type 2 diabetes. The total annual direct medical costs of diabetic peripheral neuropathy were $1.3 billion for people with type 1 diabetes and $17.5 billion for people with type 2 diabetes in 2001, according to a poster presentation at the meeting.

Combining data on complication rates, population, and the costs of treating individual complications, Arran Shearer and his colleagues determined the overall costs to all U.S. health care payers.

“There is a large cost associated with neuropathy—but no one has quantified it all before,” said Mr. Shearer, a researcher at the York (England) Health Economics Consortium at the University of York.  Peripheral neuropathy occurs in an estimated 59% of people with type 1 diabetes and 49% of people with type 2 diabetes. To calculate direct medical costs, Mr. Shearer and his colleagues looked at consequences such as foot ulcers, which occur in 6% of people with type 1 diabetes and 7% of those with type 2. The analysis included variation in resources needed to treat various types of foot ulcers; for example, an ulcer with no deep infection is easier to treat than one with cellulitis or osteomyelitis.

Source: Diabetes In Control Dot Com: Diabetes Care (26[6]:1790-95, 2003.

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