Introduction: An economic analysis was performed to estimate the annual cost of diabetes mellitus to Malaysia.
Methods: We combined published data and clinical pathways to estimate cost of follow-up and complications, then calculated the overall national cost. Costs consisted of diabetes follow-up and complications costs.
Results: Patient follow-up was estimated at RM459 per year. Complications cost were RM42,362 per patient per year for nephropathy, RM4,817 for myocardial infarction, RM5,345 for stroke, RM3,880 for heart failure, RM5,519 for foot amputation, RM479 for retinopathy and RM4,812 for cataract extraction.
Conclusion: Overall, we estimated the total cost of diabetes as RM2.04 billion per year for year 2011 (both public and private sector). Of this, RM1.40 billion per year was incurred by the government. Despite some limitations, we believe our study provides insight to the actual cost of diabetes to the country. The high cost to the nation highlights the importance of primary and secondary prevention.