Received 12 December 2008; received in revised form 20 August 2009; accepted 28 September 2009. published online 30 October 2009.
Abstract
Aim
To determine the health system costs, cost to people with diabetes and their carers, and impact on quality of life associated with type 2 diabetes in Vanuatu.
Methods
A cross-sectional paper based survey was administered to 199 people with type 2 diabetes as part of a larger diabetes project.
Results
There were 172 respondents (86% response rate) with a mean age of 56 years (mean duration of diabetes 8 years, 106 females; 67 unemployed). Over the preceding year there were 2352 outpatient visits for health care totalling 442,400 vatu ($4020 USD); 140 overnight hospital stays totalling 1,383,620 vatu ($12,580 USD); and prescription medications costing 3220 vatu/person ($29.20 USD). Major out-of-pocket costs for individuals were the over-the-counter medications totalling 6600 vatu/person/year ($60 USD) for 31 people (18%); transport at 1980 vatu/person/year ($18.00 USD) for 110 people (64%) and special diets for 38 people (22%) costing 36,480 vatu/person ($332 USD). Quality of life was 91/100 on the EQ-5D visual analogue scale.
Conclusions
Given that diabetes in Vanuatu is likely to be significantly under-diagnosed and under-treated the current costs, while substantial are artificially low but are set to rise sharply with increased awareness of diabetes and growing rates of obesity.
ABSTRACT