Early treatment key to managing diabetes health issues, costs, survey says

LONDON Focusing on earlier treatment will help address the growing medical and economic burden of Type 2 diabetes, a new survey suggests.

The results, from the Diabetes Impact Survey, indicate that healthcare professionals thought they and their peers were more likely in recent years to prescribe additional therapies at an earlier stage in a patient’s treatment regimen, but according to those surveyed, less than 50 percent of their patients receive their target HbA1c goal. A survey of patients indicated that 40 percent reported complications associated with their disease.

“Diabetes-related complications such as heart disease, stroke and kidney diseasse account for many of the costs associated with diabetes,” said Anthony Barnett, a member of the steering panel for the survey, diabetologist and professor of medicine at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom. “As the survey opinion results have highlighted, treating patients earlier is a preferred approach.”

The survey results were released Monday in conjunction with World Diabetes Day, on Nov. 14.