The Burden of Diabetes in Argentina

OBJECTIVE To measure the economic burden of diabetes in Argentina by age, gender and region for the year 2005, in disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). METHODS DALYs were estimated by the sum of years of life lost due to premature death (YLL) and years of life lived with disability (YLD). RESULTS In the population studied (20 to 85 years), the burden of diabetes without complications was 1.3 million DALYs, 85% of which were caused by disabilities. Whereas mortality rates (YLL) increased as a function of age, YLD showed the opposite relationship. Women had higher burden of disease values, represented by 51 and 61% of YLL and YLD, respectively, independently of age. CONCLUSIONS Our results demonstrate that disabilities are a key component of diabetes burden; its regular and systematic estimation would allow to design effective prevention strategies, to assess the impact of their implementation and to optimize resource allocation based on objective evidence.