OBJECTIVES: In Myanmar type 2, diabetes is an emerging health problem, and with the current trend, which is going to become a crisis in the upcoming years. However, the economic consequences of the disease, which plays a vital role in disease management in line with the country’s limited resources, is still ignored. Thus, this study aimed to estimate the cost and formulate forecasting cost model regarding treatment for hospitalized type 2 diabetes.

METHODS: This study was a retrospective incidence-based cost of illness analysis. The resources utilization data were collected by reviewing 87 randomly selected type 2 diabetic patients’ medical record at the Diabetes and Endocrinology ward of North Okkapala teaching hospital in Yangon, Myanmar, for the fiscal year 2017. As there was no standard unit cost at the study hospital, the unit cost of medical services was first calculated by standard costing approach. The treatment cost was computed by multiplying the number of resources used with their unit cost. Multiple regression analysis was applied to formulate a cost model.

RESULTS: The median treatment cost of hospitalization at 2019 price was 480.37 USD per patient per admission, which was 38% of per capita gross domestic product of Myanmar. The cost function model explored that average treatment cost was 68% higher in a patient with diabetes foot, 76% higher in a patient with nephropathy, 79% higher in a patient with retinopathy and 115% higher in a patient with respiratory tract disease. The cost was approximately 1043% higher in the worst-case scenario (patient with both complications including nephropathy, retinopathy and foot ulcer and comorbidity such as respiratory tract disease)

CONCLUSIONS: Given the high avoidable cost related to complications and comorbidity, this study increases awareness of health care providers and policymakers to initiate the clinical services, which aimed to decrease the prevalence of disease and its associated complications.