Regional differences in the frequency of diabetes occurrence and its treatment costs during the years 2008-2013, based on the NFZ (National Health Fund) database.

Abstract

In the European region in 2013 the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) estimated the number of patients with diabetes at 56 million [1]. The costs of treatment in Europe were estimated at 140 million Euro. Recently Tamayo et al., when presenting the data for Poland in the updated IDF Diabetes Atlas report, estimated the morbidity at approx. 6.5% [2]. This number was estimated based on the “Wieloośrodkowe Ogolnopolskie Badanie Stanu Zdrowia (WOBASZ)” project of 2003–2005 and earlier analyses from 1998–2001 [3]. Other studies include: Screen-Pol, Polish Multicenter Study on Diabetes Epidemiology (PMSDE) and “Nadciśnienie Tetnicze w Polsce Plus Zaburzenia Lipidowe i Cukrzyca (NATPOL-PLUS)” [4–6]. These analyses were partially local or were based on relatively small groups of patients. In 2004 the total cost of diabetes treatment in Poland was estimated at approx. PLN 6 billion [7]. High social costs of diabetes necessitate uninterrupted preventive activities, enabling the restriction of morbidity and public expenses for its treatment. The studies dedicated to regional variability of diabetes prevalence may help to identify specific risk factors and differences in management. In the region of Europe the differences of morbidity are very high, within the range from 2.4% in Moldavia up to 14.9% in Turkey [2]. In addition to the actual differences in the frequency of occurrence, they certainly are related to uneven and not fully reliable method of data calculation in individual countries [2]. Within Poland, the regional data concerning the frequency of diabetes occurrence in the years 2003–2005 ranged from 4.2% in women in Malopolska province up to 9.0% in men in Wielkopolska province [3]. Current data on regional differences may form the basis for future more detailed analyses on social, epidemiological and economic reasons for the variability of diabetes occurrence frequency in Poland.