Cited by 197Diabetes Management and ResearchHealth Systems, Economic Evaluations, Quality of LifeDiabetes Management and Education

Estimating the Cost of Type 1 Diabetes in the U.S.: A Propensity Score Matching Method

Open access
Tao, Betty, Pietropaolo, Massimo, Atkinson, Mark, Schatz, Desmond, Taylor, David·2010·PLoS ONE

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Diabetes costs represent a large burden to both patients and the health care system. However, few studies that examine the economic consequences of diabetes have distinguished between the two major forms, type 1 and type 2 diabetes, despite differences in underlying pathologies. Combining the two diseases implies that there is no difference between the costs of type 1 and type 2 diabetes to a patient. In this study, we examine the costs of type 1 diabetes, which is often overlooked due to the larger population of type 2 patients, and compare them to the estimated costs of diabetes reported in the literature. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Using a nationally representative dataset, we estimate yearly and lifetime medical and indirect costs of type 1 diabetes by implementing a matching method to compare a patient with type 1 diabetes to a similar individual without the disease. We find that each year type 1 diabetes costs this country $14.4 billion (11.5-17.3) in medical costs and lost income. In terms of lost income, type 1 patients incur a disproportionate share of type 1 and type 2 costs. Further, if the disease were eliminated by therapeutic intervention, an estimated $10.6 billion (7.2-14.0) incurred by a new cohort and $422.9 billion (327.2-519.4) incurred by the existing number of type 1 diabetic patients over their lifetime would be avoided. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We find that the costs attributed to type 1 diabetes are disproportionately higher than the number of type 1 patients compared with type 2 patients, suggesting that combining the two diseases when estimating costs is not appropriate. This study and another recent contribution provides a necessary first step in estimating the substantial costs of type 1 diabetes on the U.S.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1371/journal.pone.0011501

Cites

49 of 49 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Two studies have provided cost estimates specifically for type 1 diabetes, proposing an annual figure of $14·4-14·9 billion in the USA.

    “However, two studies have provided cost estimates specifically for type 1 diabetes, proposing an annual figure of $14·4–14·9 billion in the USA.104,105”

    From Type 1 diabetes (2014) · cites this paper as [105]

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

2 of the 51 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 3

  1. [5]Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). Available at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb 38416859
  2. [40]Werner BFBrouwer Marc AKoopmanschap Frans FHRutten 1997 Productivity Costs Measurement Through Quality of Life? A Response to the Recommendation of the Washington Panel. Health Economics 6 253 259 9226143
  3. [45]Rosenbaum PR 2002 Observational Studies. 2nd ed. Springer

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Tao, B., Pietropaolo, M., Atkinson, M., Schatz, D., & Taylor, D.
Affiliations
  • University of Michigan (US)
  • University of Florida (US)
  • Center for Naval Analyses (US)
Corresponding author
Tao, Betty
Venue
PLoS ONE
Published
2010-07-09
Volume
5
Issue
7
Pages
e11501
ISSN
1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2093172018
Cited by
197
References
51
Citations by year
2026: 7 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 21 · 2019: 20 · 2018: 17 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 11 · 2013: 12 · 2012: 8
FWCI
6.78
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
  • University of Michigan
  • National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (R01DK053456)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism › Diabetes Management and Research
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Health Systems, Economic Evaluations, Quality of Life
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism › Diabetes Management and Education
Keywords
type 1 diabetes, health care costs, indirect costs, income loss, lifetime costs, economic burden, type 2 diabetes, cost comparison, economic burden of disease, cost avoidance
MeSH terms
Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1, Female, Humans, Male, Models, Theoretical, United States

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review