Medical costs associated with chronic kidney disease progression in an Asian population with type 2 diabetes mellitus

AIM: We aim to examine difference in incremental direct medical costs between non-progressive and progressive chronic kidney disease (CKD) in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in Singapore. METHODS: This was a prospective study on 676 patients with T2DM attending a diabetes centre in a regional hospital. Annual direct medical costs were extracted from the administrative database. Ordinary least squares regression was used to estimate contribution of CKD progression to annual costs, adjusting for demographics and baseline clinical covariates. RESULTS: Over mean follow-up period of 2.8 ± 0.4 years, 266 (39.3%) had CKD progression. The excess total follow-up medical costs from baseline was S$4243 higher in progressors compared to non-progressors (P = 0.002). The mean cost differential between the two groups increased from S$2799 in Stages G1-G2 to S$11180 in Stage G4. Inpatient cost accounted for 63.4% of total cost of progression. When stratified by glomerular filtration rate stages, the respective total mean annual costs at stages glomerular filtration rate Stages G3a-G3b and G4 were S$3290 (132%; P = 0.001) and S$4416 (135%; P = 0.011) higher post-progression. CONCLUSION: Chronic kidney disease progression in T2DM is associated with high medical costs. The cost of progression is higher with higher severity of CKD stage at baseline and could be largely driven by inpatient admission.