Estimating the Burden of Diabetes in Kuwait

Diabetes imposes large economic burden on national health care systems and affects both national economies and individuals and their families. Direct medical costs include resources used to treat the disease (thus included outpatient care, inpatient care, medications, medical devices and long term care) (Seuring et al, 2015). Indirect costs include lost productivity caused by morbidity, disability, and premature mortality. Intangible costs refer to the reduced quality of life for people with diabetes brought about by stress, pain, and anxiety.

Against this background, this project has a three-fold objective: (i) to analyse the link between diabetes and healthcare utilization (both, outpatient and inpatient); (ii) based on (i), to determine the total (direct and indirect) cost of diabetes in Kuwait by providing a static measure of the cost of diabetes; and (iii) to critically evaluate the existing preventive measures (by also doing a comparative analysis with the rest of the Gulf region) aiming at reducing the overall economic burden of diabetes in Kuwait. The preventative measures will then be used in dynamic simulations that will help devise strategies for further reducing the economic burden of diabetes.