18 per cent of family income goes in diabetic care, says study
Posted on: 10/Sep/2016 10:42:05 AM
A study conducted by the department of endocrinology at Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences in Lucknow says that a middle class family spends an estimated 18 per cent of its family income in managing a diabetic patient in the house.
For the study, 88 families of patients were studied for a period of one year. All the patients were aged between 3 and 39 years. The researchers found that families had to spend Rs 27,915 per annum on the management of the ailment.
According to the study and the researchers, The direct cost of management of Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus, or T1DM, that mainly afflicts children is expensive. The cost associated with management of the disease is about 18 per cent of the family income which, at times, hurts more than the insulin pricks that the patient receives. The amount was considerably high for patients coming from middle and lower income groups. The burden was even higher since 81 per cent families and patients did not have access to government subsidy or medical insurance. The maximum expenditure was on home glucose monitoring, 40 per cent, and insulin, 39.5 per cent. Besides, we have cases where there are complications arising due to re-use of syringes, skipping a dose of insulin or irregular blood glucose monitoring which often leads to hospitalization.
