The impact of acute myocardial infarction and stroke on health care costs in patients with type 2 diabetes in Sweden.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Estimates of the economic impact of cardiovascular events in patients with type 2 diabetes are scarce. The aim of this study was to determine the health care costs associated with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and stroke in patients with type 2 diabetes in Sweden. DESIGN: Population-based open cohort study of 9941 patients with type 2 diabetes retrospectively identified in primary care records at 26 centres in Uppsala County. METHODS: Episodes of AMI and stroke suffered by study patients were tracked in the Swedish National Inpatient Register. Annual per patient costs of health care were computed for the years 2000-2004 using register data covering inpatient care, outpatient hospital care, primary care and drugs. Panel data regression was applied to determine the impact of suffering a first or repeat AMI or stroke on health care costs during the year of the event and in subsequent years. RESULTS: Total health care costs of patients suffering a first AMI/stroke increased by 4.1/6.5 during the year of the event [95% confidence interval (CI) 3.1-5.4/4.9-8.5] and by 1.1/1.4 during subsequent years (95% CI 1.0-1.3/1.2-1.6), controlling for age, sex, the event of amputation and presence of renal failure, heart failure and diabetic eye disease. Total health care costs of patients suffering a first or repeat AMI/stroke increased by 4.1/6.4 during the year of an event (95% CI 3.2-5.2/5.0-8.1) but were not significantly higher during subsequent years. CONCLUSION: Estimates of the costs related to major cardiovascular complications of type 2 diabetes are critical input to economic evaluations.