Research on the economic risk of diseases in middle-aged and elderly patients with diabetes—evidence from China

Abstract

Objective: To measure the economic risk of diseases in Chinese middle-aged and elderly patients with diabetes. Methods: The economic risk of diseases in Chinese middle-aged and elderly patients with diabetes was comprehensively analyzed using the family economic risk of diseases, catastrophic health expenditure, and relative risk of the disease. Results: The proportions of families with low, medium, and high family economic risk of diseases were 64.73%, 8.56%, and 26.71%, respectively. When the defining criteria are 15%, 25%, and 40%, the incidences of catastrophic health expenditure were 66.71%, 60.07%, and 54.59%, respectively. The health expenditure of diabetic patients was 1.80 times that of non-diabetic patients when the difference in patients’ income was eliminated. Conclusion: In general, Chinese middle-aged and elderly patients with diabetes face a large economic risk of diseases, which will seriously hinder the improvement of their family life quality. The sociodemographic characteristics related to diabetics will aggravate the patient’s economic risk, such as smoking, drinking, and low household income. Moreover, diabetes patients with different basic medical insurance have different economic risk of diseases.