Cost of severe hypoglycaemia in nine European countries.

AbstractObjective: Complications contribute largely to the economic gravity of diabetes mellitus (DM). How they arise and are treated differs substantially between countries. This paper assesses the total annual, direct, and indirect cost of severe hypoglycemia events (SHEs) in nine European countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia/the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (MK), Poland, Slovenia, and Spain.Methods: Data was collected on epidemiology, treatment structure, SHE-driven resource consumption, and unit costs. Two systematic reviews—on the SHE rates and the resources used for treatment—and data on the days-of-work lost due to SHE along with salaries and employment rates were used. The total SHE cost in each country was calculated and how the differences are driven by individual parameters was analysed.Results: The annual costs of SHEs varied in absolute terms from €379,951.25 in MK up to €58,429,684.40 in Spain, or—when expressed per one drug-treated DM patient...