Economic family burden of metabolic control in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes mellitus.
OBJECTIVE
To appraise the economic burden for families of patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM1) at the Instituto Nacional de Pediatria in Mexico City.


METHODS
DM1 family direct costs were obtained from a standardized economic survey in 59 children with no chronic severe complications such as kidney failure in 2002-3.


RESULTS
Mean family annual direct cost of treatment and monitoring was US $1689.87 which includes government funding given to both outpatients and inpatients. Despite this, DM1 out-of-pocket cost for families is very high compared to the minimum official wage of approximately $4.00 dollar/day versus $4.06 cost DM1/day. No correlation between parents' age, education or socio-economic level and direct cost was statistically significant.


CONCLUSIONS
The highest economic burden was due to self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) 53.0% and insulin 14.8%. The costs were higher in children with poor metabolic control who performed SMBG less often.
Altamirano-Bustamante
Nelly
N
Servicio de Endocrinologia, Instituto Nacional de Pediatria, Secretaría de Salud, Mexico City, Mexico. namexi@correo.unam.mx
Islas-Ortega
Laura
L
Robles-Valdés
Carlos
C
Garduño-Espinosa
Juan
J
Morales-Cisneros
Gabriela
G
Valderrama
Alejandro
A
Calzada-León
Raúl
R
Cuevas
M Luisa
ML
Xancopinca
José Luis
JL
Altamirano-Bustamante
Myriam M
MM
D000293:Adolescent; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000378:metabolism; D015190:Blood Glucose Self-Monitoring / Q000191:economics; D002648:Child; D017281:Cost of Illness; D003625:Data Collection; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000191:economics* / Q000378:metabolism; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D017048:Health Care Costs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007328:Insulin / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D008800:Mexico
D001786:Blood Glucose; D007328:Insulin