Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Diabetes. Aug 15, 2019; 10(8): 463-472
Published online Aug 15, 2019. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v10.i8.463
Comparison of awareness of diabetes mellitus type II with treatment’s outcome in term of direct cost in a hospital in Saudi Arabia
Muaed Jamal Alomar, Khadeja Rashed Al-Ansari, Najeeb A Hassan
Muaed Jamal Alomar, Khadeja Rashed Al-Ansari, Najeeb A Hassan, Clinical Pharmacy Department, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Ajman University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates
Author contributions: Alomar MJ contributed in the proposal, design of the method, writing revision and analysis; Al-Ansari KR contributed in the performance of data collection writing and analysis; Hassan NA contributed equally to the work including design, writing and analysis.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Ministry of Health and Prevention Research Ethics Committee.
Informed consent statement: We used a data collection form without signed consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There is no conflict of interest to this study.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Muaed Jamal Alomar, BPharm, BSc, MSc, PhD, Associate Professor, Head of Department, Clinical Pharmacy Department, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Ajman University, University Street, Ajman, United Arab Emirates. muayyad74@yahoo.com
Telephone: +97-150-7157641
Received: May 2, 2019
Peer-review started: May 5, 2019
First decision: May 31, 2015
Revised: June 8, 2015
Accepted: July 20, 2019
Article in press: July 20, 2019
Published online: August 15, 2019
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Saudi Arabia is among the top 10 countries with the highest prevalence of diabetes. Cost of prevention and the indirect cost must be calculated to increase the awareness of society and to emphasize disease prevention and limit further complications.

AIM

To understand the importance of awareness and the impact on the expenditure of diabetes mellitus and treatments outcomes.

METHODS

A prospective descriptive and comparative survey was carried out among patients with diabetes mellitus in Saudi Arabia.

RESULTS

One hundred and one participants were included in the study of which 40% were female and one third were above the age of 50. The mean of the first HbA1c reading was 6.95, and the median was 7. The mean of the second reading of HbA1c was 7.26, and the median was 7. The mean body mass index was 32.1, and the median was 30.9. The average yearly cost of the medication was 995.14 SR. Comparing participants who think that a healthy low-sugar diet can affect blood sugar with those who do not, showed a statistically significant difference when cost was considered (P value = 0.03). Also, when comparing the group of participants who know when to take their oral hyperglycemic medicine and their yearly direct cost and those who do not know when to take it, by using independent sample T test, showed significant statistical difference (P value = 0.046).

CONCLUSION

It is essential for the governments to invest in ways to prevent and help in the early detection of such an expensive disease by performing national screening and education programs. Many pharmaco-economic studies can be done to help the decision-maker in our hospitals think about strategies to help the patient to be physically fit by offering gymnasium or places to walk or contract.

Keywords: Middle East, Diabetes, Lifestyle, Hypoglycemic

Core tip: This study evaluated diabetic patients’ compliance to hypoglycemic medications, dietary control, and their impact on cost effectiveness. It shows that lack of compliance has negative impact on patients’ therapeutic outcomes, which in turn affects cost of medications and management of diabetic complications. Further educational campaigns are important among diabetic patients in order to reduce negative health consequences and economic outcomes.