Meta-Analysis And Meta-Regression Of The Prevalence Of Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy Among Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract

Diabetes care represents a significant economic cost in the United States and without a concerted effort both to prevent diabetes-associated complications and the number of individuals who develop diabetes, these costs are likely to continue to rise. Health insurers are straining under the burden of diabetes-related expenditures, and increasingly are sharing these costs with their covered patients. As a consequence, some diabetes patients forgo needed treatment because of cost problems and many fail to address this issue with their clinicians. There are many initiatives to improve the management of diabetes both by health care providers and patients, including specified coverage for certain diabetes services and programs that target high-risk and high-cost patients. It is also important, however, to recognize the many ways in which nurses can help reduce the economic impact of diabetes, such as assisting patients with cost-related self-management problems, helping ensure that proper reimbursement is maintained to sustain critical diabetes services, and being an active participant in programs designed to provide better quality and more cost-effective care for individuals with diabetes or prediabetes. In these ways and many others nurses play a critical role in helping to reduce the cost of diabetes not only for individual patients but ultimately for the health care system and society as a whole. © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.