Determinants of Expenditure on Diabetes Care: A Community Based Longitudinal Study in aResettlement Colony of Delhi

Diabetes is one of the expensive diseases due to its chronic nature and gradual involvement of multiple organs, Moreover loss of economic productivity further enhances the cost of care. Several factors were reported to have impact on overall economic burden in diabetic patients. So, the present study aims to determine influence of various socio-demographic and clinical factors on expenditure of diabetes care among patients residing in resettlement colony of East Delhi.

A community based one year longitudinal study was conducted in Kalyanpuri area of East Delhi. All the diabetes patients aged 25 years and who were the permanent residents of Kalyanpuri, attending the Diabetic Clinic of a government hospital in November-December 2014 were selected for the study. A pre-tested semi-structured interview schedule was used as study tool. Each subject was followed up 3 monthly from January to December 2015.

Data of 150 study subjects was analyzed. Out of 150 subjects 45(30 %) were male and 105 (70%) female. Overall mean age of study subjects was 53 ± 10 years Among socio-demographic factors, Expenditure on diabetes care showed significant association with male gender and among clinical factors, longer duration since diagnosis, use of Insulin with Oral Hypoglycemic drugs, hospitalization and utilization of private care has shown positive association with expenditure on diabetes care.

The present study concludes that there is need of better provisioning of services for diabetes care in government health facilities to cater needs of growing diabetic population..