CODE‐2† UK: our contribution to a European study of the costs of type 2 diabetes

CODE‐2 UK is the UK contribution to the Cost of Diabetes in Europe – Type 2 (CODE‐2) study, the first to examine the health care resource use of people with type 2 diabetes in more than one European country. CODE‐2 UK studied samples of people with type 2 diabetes from population based registers in Bradford, Jersey and Salford. Data on NHS resource use were obtained retrospectively, covering the period 1 January 1998 to 31 December 1998, from the registers and from primary and secondary care records. Hospital admissions and ambulatory care accounted for 36.2% and 37.7% of total direct costs, which were, on average, £1505 per patient per year. Oral anti‐diabetic drugs accounted for 2.7% of total costs. Based on these data and an estimated prevalence of type 2 diabetes in the UK of 2%, the estimated total annual NHS cost of type 2 diabetes is £1.8 billion or 4.1% of total NHS expenditure. Similar findings were evident in other European countries.