Introduction: There is a growing need to evaluate the factors contributing to the increase in health expenditures, as well as the cost of medicines used in the treatment of Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in the economically developed countries.
Areas covered: A systematic searching of studies describing the direct cost of T2DM and medicine cost of treating T2DM. The quality of the studies found eligible for this study were assessed using a methodological quality appraisal tool. Nine studies were included in this review. All the included studies had data on direct cost and antidiabetic medicine cost of health care. Mean annual direct cost per person/year ranged between US$220 and US$7600. The two components with the greatest impact on direct cost were found to be medicines and hospitalization. The mean annual medicines cost per person/year was found to range between US$140 and US$2990.
Expert commentary: There is an increased expenditure on treatment of T2DM. However, it is still not clear how the increased use of antidiabetic medicines is reflected in the overall expenditures. Further, we suggest a more comprehensive understanding of prescription patterns as older drugs are more expensive than the newer drugs, hence they are still under patent.
Keywords: Type 2 diabetes mellitus; chronic disease; cost; drugs; economics; health care costs; health expenditure; medicines; type 2 diabetes.