Numerous studies have analyzed the direct and indirect costs of diabetes at the national level. A study conducted by several universities in Texas investigated for the first time the financial impact of diabetes upon local communities. The study concludes that for every $1 of lost income due to diabetes, another 36 cents is lost in reduced local spending.
"No matter how you look at it, diabetes is a costly disease," says lead researcher Dr. H. Shelton Brown, III, PhD, in the Division of Management Policy and Community Health at the University of Texas School of Public Health. "Those costs extend well beyond the price of medical care and lost wages when people become incapacitated due to illness."
"Adults with diabetes who are not working spend less, hurting the local economy," the study concludes. "In a small community with a high prevalence of diabetes, the indirect costs of diabetes are quite high and are not limited to adults with diabetes alone. Given these results, policies to prevent diabetes should be especially supported in communities with a high prevalence of diabetes precisely because of its broad economic impact on the entire community."
This study finds that, because people with diabetes work less, and earn less when they do work, than those who do not have diabetes, they also spend less in the local economy.
