OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to examine the financial burden caused by Diabetes in the Public Health System, pre and during the COVID-19 pandemic

METHODS: The total number of patients with DM from the registry of the Hellenic National Organization for Health Care Provision, were collected. Their DM-related hospitalizations performed in the years 2019 and 2020, based on the DRGs, were examined. Also, financial data were collected on the cost of medication, non-durable devices and visits to specialists, for the year 2019 and 2020. Total cost for T2DM and T1DM patients was calculated

RESULTS: The analysis of our data suggested that the prevalence of DM in Greece was 5.3% for the year 2019 & 6.34% for 2020, respectively. As for the DM-related hospitalizations, the number of T1DM inpatients increased during 2020 by 6.67% while for inpatients with T2DM decreased by 5.26%. Regarding the total cost of hospitalization for both types of DM, there was an increase of 6.81%. For each type separately, a cost increase of 15,73% was observed in T1DM and 6.23% in T2DM. The average cost per person for hospitalizations increased by 4.91% in T1DM while decreased by 4.82% in T2DM. Regarding the cost of pharmaceutical expenditure and non-durable devices, there was a decrease in both T1DM and T2DM (15.24% & 20.28%, respectively) during 2020.The total cost per patient that burden the Public Health System decreased by 5.19% for patients with DM T2 while it was not observed difference for patients with DM T1

CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that implementation of restrictive measures to reduce the pandemic, the closure of many clinics as well as the limitation of appointments in diabetic clinics and certified diabetes centers may have been one of the factors for reducing the number of diabetics hospitalized