OBJECTIVES: Patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) have higher risk of developing heart failure (HF) than patients without diabetes. The aim of the study is to estimate the prevalence of this comorbidities and to examine the health resource utilization and costs in a healthcare plan.

METHODS: Retrospective non-interventional study from administrative database to identify patients aged 18–100 years with DM (ICD10:E10-E11) from 2019 to 2023 and stratified according to history or not of HF (ICD10:I50). Another analysis compared this association with the general population without DM. Demographic, diagnostic, resource utilization, and cost were obtained from the claims. Direct costs, including hospitalizations and outpatient care adjusted to the 2023 values, were compared across the groups and with the general population without DM+CHF. The non-parametric Mann-Whitney test was used to compare the medians of the costs and Chi-square tests for significance when p<0.05.

RESULTS: A total of 2,317 DM patients were included. HF was prevalent in 12.8% of diabetic and 2.4% of non-diabetics (p<0.001). Patients with concomitant DM and CHF were older (median age 77 vs. 72), most were female (55.9%) and had more comorbidities as compared to patients with DM but without CHF. DM+CHF were associated with a greater number of hospitalizations, emergency room visits, physical therapy, and tests (30.4%, 16.0%, 27.4%, 7.6%, respectively), resulting in an economic burden 41.0% higher when compared to DM alone (p<0.001). When we compare the costs of patients with DM+CHF and individuals without this condition, the cost is 2.4 times higher (p<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS: Patients with concomitant DM and HF had a significantly higher economic burden. We hope that our data increase the attention health care payers and contribute to a reevaluation of strategies for preventing and treating heart failure and cardiovascular disease in diabetes, with the consequent optimization on the use of economic resources.