title: Hospital expenditure on treating complications of diabetes and the potential for deferring complications in Canterbury, New Zealand.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate annual expenditure by a major district health board in New Zealand on hospital admissions for treating the various complications of diabetes.
  
  
  METHODS
  Actual costs were analysed for 2005/06, for all inpatient hospital admissions in Canterbury, New Zealand, where diabetes was recorded as a primary or secondary diagnosis. Costs and lengths of stay for all such admissions were included for ICD-10 codes using the criteria from Australian studies of potentially avoidable hospitalisations. ICD-10 codes were used to identify the major types of complications of diabetes resulting in hospital admissions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Total costs of all hospital admissions where diabetes was recorded as a primary or secondary diagnosis amounted to $10.1 million in 2005/06, and 9511 days stay in hospital; 69% of these costs were for admissions where diabetes was a secondary diagnosis, with the majority of such costs being for treatment of admissions for cardiovascular disease.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results generally indicated that diabetes associated with hospital admissions is a major factor, which is still under-reported, and which involves considerable costs of treating the longer term consequences of diabetes. The largest proportion of these costs is for cardiovascular disease, where diabetes is the secondary diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health and General Practice, University of Otago, Christchurch, New Zealand. ian.sheerin@otago.ac.nz
authors.forename: Ian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Sheerin
mesh_terms: D048909:Diabetes Complications / Q000191:economics* / Q000628:therapy; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000191:economics* / Q000628:therapy; D004469:Economics, Hospital; D005102:Health Expenditures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D009520:New Zealand