Diabetes treatment targets improve healthcare costs

New research has claimed that improvements in health and reductions in healthcare costs could be achieved if blood glucose, blood pressure and cholesterol treatment targets were met.

The Nuffield Department of Population Health’s new study assessed the long-term impact of achieving treatment targets for Type 2 diabetes on diabetes-related complications, life expectancy, and healthcare costs.

Diabetes currently affects approximately nine per cent of the UK adult population, with Type 2 diabetes accounting for approximately 90 per cent of these cases (roughly 5.4 million patients in the UK). An estimated £10 billion, approximately 10 per cent of the NHS budget, is spent on diabetes annually; 80 per cent of which is for treatment of diabetes complications.

The study found that meeting more treatment targets was associated with lower risk of a range of diabetes-related complications. Patients would live on average seven months more for each additional treatment target achieved.

The National Diabetes Audit, which measures the effectiveness of diabetes healthcare, recently reported improvements in achieving defined treatment targets for blood glucose, blood pressure, and cholesterol among people with Type 2 diabetes. However, the percentage of patients who achieve all three targets is relatively low, ranging from 27 per cent to 54 per cent across groups of GP practices in England and Wales.  

Meeting all three treatment targets reduces the costs to the NHS of treating complications by about £1,000 per patient. The authors of the study claims that this could lead to substantial savings to the NHS considering the high and increasing prevalence of Type 2 diabetes in England and Wales.

Borislava Mihaylova, the senior author of the paper noted;: “Our study shows that if the 10 per cent lowest performing GP practices (with about a quarter of their patients meeting the targets) were to reach the target levels achieved by the top 10 per cent performing GP practices (with about half of patients meeting the targets), they would realise an average gain of 30 years of life for every 100 patients or 3.6 months per patient. These benefits would more than double if they could get all their patients to meet all three treatment targets.”

Nikki Joule, policy manager at Diabetes UK, said: “We hope these findings categorically demonstrate to healthcare commissioners that there are significant economic benefits in improving the support people with Type 2 diabetes receive to help them manage their condition. It’s vital that all people with diabetes are given the support they need to meet as many of their treatment targets as possible. This will help people with diabetes live longer, healthier lives and could also save money for our already stretched NHS.”