Background: Quantifying the burden of diabetes mellitus is fundamental for managing patients in health service\ndelivery systems and improves the understanding of the importance of prevention and early intervention of\ndiabetes. In Switzerland, epidemiological data on diabetes are very scarce. In this study we provide a first national\noverview of the current situation of diabetes mellitus in Switzerland as well as the development of the prevalence,\nincidence, mortality and costs between 2006 and 2011.\nMethods: Using health care claims data of a large health insurance group, current epidemiology and costs were\ndetermined from a sample of adult enrollees in 2011. The identification of patients with diabetes was based on\nprescription data of diabetes related drugs using the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification as proxy for\nclinical diagnosis. We further evaluated changes in epidemiology and costs between 2006 and 2011. All results\nwere weighted with census data to achieve an extrapolation to the Swiss general population level.\nResults: A total of 920�402 patients were enrolled in 2011 and 49�757 (5.4%) were identified as diabetes cases. The\nextrapolated overall prevalence of diabetes in Switzerland was 4.9% (2006, 3.9%). The incidence was 0.58% in 2011\n(2007, 0.63%). The extrapolated mortality rate was 2.6% with no significant change over time. Annual diabetes costs\nto the mandatory health insurance increased from EUR 5,036 per patient in 2006 to EUR 5�331 per patient in 2011.\nConclusions: This study shows a high medical and economic burden of diabetes. The prevalence and costs of\ndiabetes in Switzerland increased substantially over time. Findings stress the need for public health strategies to\nmanage patients with chronic conditions and optimize resource allocation in health service delivery systems.
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