The Lifetime Cost Of Diabetes And Its Implications In Hong Kong

Abstract

Background: Hong Kong, in common with many economies, is experiencing a rising burden of diabetes and rapidly ageing population with long life expectancies. The prevalence of diabetes among adults in Hong Kong was 10.3% in 2014 (Quan et al., 2017). Aims: To evaluate the future cost implications of diabetes in ageing society, it is important to assess the lifetime health care expenditure for people with diabetes. Method: Annual health care expenditure was estimated using the Hong Kong Hospital Authority administrative dataset from 2006 to 2017 which covers over 700,000 people with diabetes. We also calculated the specific life expectancy for people with diabetes using our population cohort. We excluded people in the last of year of life from the annual health care expenditure as spending at the end of life is far greater than spending in previous years. To calculate the lifetime health care expenditure, we aggregated the age-specific annual health care expenditures from the age of diabetes diagnosis to the penultimate year of life, and then included an adjustment for expenditure in the year of death. Eesults: The lifetime health care expenditure in USD (2017 prices) for males diagnosed with diabetes at age 30 is $149,219, age 40 is $121,090, age 50 is $104,467 and age 60 is $87,475; and for females diagnosed with diabetes at age 30 is $166,461, age 40 is $138,333, age 50 is $117,379 and age 60 is $99,670. Females were associated with higher levels of health care expenditure due to longer life expectancy. Discussion: An advanced economy like Hong Kong can serve as a sentinel for epidemiological transitions in mainland China and other East Asian populations. Diabetes is associated with high lifetime health care costs. Delaying the age of onset of diabetes has significant health care cost savings with public health policy implications. A detailed presentation of results and accompanying discussion will be available for the Congress. References> Quan J, Li TK, Pang H, Choi CH, Siu SC, Tang SY, Wat NM, Woo J, Johnston JM, Leung GM. Diabetes incidence and prevalence in Hong Kong, China during 2006–2014. Diabetic Medicine. 2017 Jul;34(7):902-8.