ZAGREB, July 7, 2018 - Currently 286,000 persons in Croatia have been diagnosed with diabetes, and an estimated 450,000 may be at risk of this disease, doctor Dario Rahelić, the secretary of the International Diabetes Federation, has said in an interview with Hina.
According to some estimates, as many as 56% of those suffering from diabetes have developed some complications.
Rahelić presented figures showing that, in 2009, Croatia spent some 2.5 billion kuna, which accounted for 11% of the budget of Croatian Health Insurance Fund (HZZO), for treating diabetes and its complications, and 86% of that 2.5 billion kuna went to treating chronic complications.
A new study shows that, in 2016, the cost of addressing diabetes in 2016 required 4.5 billion kuna, nearly a fifth (20%) of the HZZO budget, and the lion's share, 88%, went to chronic complications.
Rahelić called for the reorganisation of the system of care for diabetes patients and for efforts to prevent type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is partly preventable by staying at a normal weight, exercising regularly, and eating properly.
