WASHINGTON– One of every four American adults suffers from a silent condition known as pre-diabetes at a cost of more than $25 billion a year in increased medical costs, according to new data published today. And among the 180,000 pregnant women diagnosed with gestational diabetes, health care costs attributed to the condition are estimated at $623 million a year, a companion study showed.
The American Diabetes Association published a cost study in 2008 that estimated the total direct and indirect costs of diagnosed diabetes in the United States at $174 billion. With the encouragement of the ADA, the National Changing Diabetes Program recently engaged The Lewin Group to build upon this previous study and provide a more comprehensive assessment of the annual cost of diabetes by expanding their current economic research model to include undiagnosed diabetes and gestational diabetes, and pre-diabetes as well. When added to the diagnosed diabetes costs, these additional costs bring the total diabetes-related medical expenses and lost productivity in 2007 to $218 billion.
“For the first time, we can demonstrate that health care costs begin to rise long before diabetes has developed. Both of these early conditions — including pre-diabetes and gestational diabetes — are associated with significant increases in the use of health care services and expenses.
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