IntroductionDiabetes and its complications are a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the Philippines. The prevalence of diabetes in the Philippines has increased from 3.4 million in 2010 to 3.7 million in 2017. The government has formulated strategies to control this increase, for example, through its non-communicable disease prevention and control plan. However, there is scarce research on the financial burden of diabetes. Filling this gap may further help policymakers to make informed decisions while developing and implementing resource planning for relevant interventions. The primary objective of the current study is to estimate the direct medical costs associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).Methods and analysisThis is a 1-year retrospective cohort study of patients with T2DM in 2016. Data will be collected from: (1) hospital databases from public institutions to estimate the cost of diabetes treatment and (2) physician interviews to estimate the cost of management of diabetes in outpatient care. We will perform descriptive and comparative analyses on direct medical costs and healthcare resource utilisation, stratified by the presence of diabetes-associated complications.Ethics and disseminationResearch ethics board approval has been obtained from the Department of Health Single Joint Research Ethics Board and Cardinal Santos Medical Center Research Ethics Review Committee. Findings from the study will be reported in peer-reviewed scientific journals and local researcher meetings.

ObjectiveTo estimate the annual direct medical cost of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in hospitals and outpatient care clinics from a healthcare payer perspective in the Philippines.Design and participants(1) A review of electronic hospital records of people with T2DM in two tertiary hospitals—Ospital ng Makati (OsMak) and National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI) and (2) a cross-sectional survey with 50 physicians providing outpatient care for people with T2DM.SettingPrimary, secondary and tertiary healthcare facilities in Metro Manila.Outcome measuresCost of managing T2DM and its related complications in US dollars (USD) in 2016.ResultsA total of 1023 and 1378 people were identified in OsMak and NKTI, with a complication rate of 66% and 74%, respectively. In both institutions, the average annual cost per person was higher if individuals were diagnosed with any complication (NKTI: US$3226 vs US$2242 and OsMak: US$621 vs US$127). Poor diabetes control was estimated to incur higher per person cost than good control in both public outpatient care (poor control, range: US$727 to US$2463 vs good control, range: US$614 to US$1520) and private outpatient care (poor control, range: US$848 to US$2507 vs good control, range: US$807 to US$1603).ConclusionThe results highlight the high direct medical cost resulting from poor diabetes control and the opportunity for cost reduction by improving control and preventing its complications.