Diabetes in Portugal cost between 2021 and 1.400 million euros in 1.700, which is equivalent to about 0,8% of Gross Domestic Product and 7% of health expenditure, the largest share in medicines.
The data are contained in a report by the National Diabetes Observatory, which Lusa had access to, according to which expenditure on outpatient medicines increased from 386,7 million euros in 2020 to 423,8 million euros in 2021.
If only the population with diabetes diagnosed in Portugal in 2021 is considered, “the apparent cost of this disease represents 1.200 million euros”, says the document.
On the other hand, the authors indicate, if one considers the average cost per person with diabetes, which according to the 10th World Atlas of Diabetes corresponded, in 2021, to €1.943,5 – it is estimated that the disease represented in Portugal a cost of 2.128 million euros (for all diabetics between 20-79 years old).
The document prepared by the National Diabetes Observatory, a structure integrated in the Portuguese Society of Diabetology (SPD), states that a positive evolution of some indicators continues to be registered, but points to “worrying evolutions” in others, such as the increase in spending on medicines, the drop in care associated with the pandemic and the growing weight of the disease in hospital admissions.
In 2021, the estimated prevalence of diabetes in the Portuguese population between 20 and 79 years old (7,8 million people) was 14,1%, that is, around 1,1 million Portuguese people in this age group are diabetic.
According to the report, the impact of the age structure of the Portuguese population (20-79 years) was reflected in an increase of 2,4 percentage points (pp) in the prevalence rate of diabetes between 2009 and 2021, which corresponds to a growth in the order of 20,5% in this period.
As for the composition of the prevalence rate of diabetes, in 56% of people it had already been diagnosed and in 44% it had not yet.
The report also points to the existence of a “statistically significant” difference in the prevalence of diabetes between men and women (greater in men), as well as to a “strong increase” in the prevalence of the disease with age, noting that more than a quarter of people aged 60-79 have diabetes.
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