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Weight loss lowered health care costs for people with type 2 diabetes
Dieting and increasing physical activity can reduce health care costs among overweight people with diabetes, according to study findings published in Diabetes Care.
“Lifestyle interventions promoting weight loss and physical activity and recommended for overweight and obese people with type 2 diabetes to improve their health,” Mark A. Espeland, PhD, professor of public health sciences at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, said in a press release. “This is the first study to show that weight loss can also save money for these individuals by reducing their health care needs and costs.”
Mark A. Espeland
Espeland and colleagues evaluated 5,121 obese and overweight people aged 45 to 76 years with type 2 diabetes to determine the impact of an intensive lifestyle intervention (ILI) compared with diabetes support and education (DSE).
Overall, 15% of participants were overweight (BMI 25-29.9 kg/m2) and 22% had class III obesity (BMI ≥40 kg/m2).
Participants in the ILI group had 11% fewer hospitalizations per year compared with the DSE group (P=.004). Similarly, annual average days in the hospital were 15% lower among the ILI group compared with the DSE group (P=.01) as well as annual rates of rehabilitation/long-term care (P=.05) and home care (P=.001). Prescription medication use was also lower among the ILI group compared with the DSE group (P<.0001).
The annual cost of health care services and medications was 7% less among the ILI group compared with the DSE group (P=.002).
The fewer hospitalizations and shorter hospital stays resulted in an average savings of $5,280 per person health care costs over a 10-year period among the ILI group.
“In conclusion, random assignment of overweight and obese individuals with type 2 diabetes to 10 years of an intensive behavioral intervention that focused on weight loss and increased physical activity resulted in relatively fewer hospitalizations, fewer days in the hospitals and less use of prescription medications,” the researchers wrote. “Cumulatively, these effects resulted in an average annual savings of almost $600 per participant relative to a comparison condition DSE.”
Disclosure: See the full study for a complete list of the researchers’ financial disclosures.