Diabetes cure a win-win for society

31-1-2012 | Other news

I recently gained a new auxiliary position: Member of the Supervisory Board of the Dutch Diabetes Research Foundation. I have clear personal motives for taking on this role. My son was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was young. That naturally caused me to develop a broad interest in the disease and, true to my profession, I soon began looking at the economic aspects of diabetes. And I have been shocked by my findings.

Diabetes is a rapidly-growing disease. An estimated one million people have the condition in the Netherlands. But the figures are even worse elsewhere. Over 2% of India’s population had diabetes in 1970. This figure stood at more than 12% in 2000 and has undoubtedly risen since. This is determined partially by genetics, but is also likely made worse by dietary patterns and floundering healthcare.

Living with diabetes

Most diabetics try to continue living as normally as possible and as a result quietly adjust their lifestyle to their disease. So you cannot immediately spot a diabetic. There are even top athletes who have diabetes. This can easily make people think that living with diabetes is not that bad. That impression is wrong.

Diabetes triggers a long series of more well-known and obvious conditions. Diabetics with an incorrect insulin dosage, resulting in a structurally too high or an extremely volatile blood sugar level, are especially at risk of eventually suffering from cardiovascular disease, kidney failure, sight problems – potentially including blindness – or even losing limbs. Investment in the prevention of diabetes or its optimum treatment after diagnosis is consequently recouped through both lower treatment costs for diabetics and healthcare cost-savings due to fewer cardiac, kidney and eye patients.

Type 2 vs type 1 diabetes

While type 2 diabetes is more prevalent in older patients, it is increasingly diagnosed in younger people as well primarily due to excess weight and lack of exercise. This means it can be reduced through good education. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease whereby the body does not produce insulin and is still much more difficult, if not impossible to prevent. But the effects can be limited through early diagnosis and effective treatment. Younger patients are especially vulnerable to complications because the earlier the disease manifests itself, the longer they will have to live with it. This means investments in both preventing type 2 and curing type 1 would be recouped quickly.

Costs of diabetics

Diabetics are expensive. A recent study by Booz Allen estimates the current total medical costs for diabetes in the Netherlands at between €4 and €5 billion a year. Diabetics have below-average labour participation. Employed diabetics are absent due to illness more often than other employees. The economic damage in the form of lost production potential is consequently huge. The authors estimate these costs at between €5 to €6 billion a year.

Find a cure for diabetes

The striking thing, however, is that the study devotes little or no attention to the possibility of promoting research to find a cure for diabetes, even though a cure is the most attractive option from both a financial and, above all, the patients’ viewpoint. Reducing the preponderance of diabetes would also help significantly reduce the number of people suffering from serious conditions such as cardiovascular disease, kidney failure and eye problems. Let the Dutch government set aside a couple of extra million euros for fighting diabetes. They could recoup this investment many times over within a couple of decades through substantially lower healthcare costs. So now you know what I hope to achieve with my unpaid auxiliary position.