Every ninth person in Finland already suffers from diabetes, but experts say that figure could double in the next decade. The cost of treating diabetes currently eats up 15 percent of the total healthcare budget, and experts in the field are looking for ways to improve their handling of the disease.
At present some half a million people in Finland are living with type 1 or type 2 diabetes, and around 200,000 of them are unaware they have the condition. If prevention efforts do not succeed, projections from the Diabetes association suggest there will be a million diabetics in Finland within ten years.
“At that point you can officially talk about an explosion, if we have a million people suffering from diabetes,” says Päivi Metsäniemi, head of development at the private healthcare firm Terveystalo.
Half a million additional diabetes sufferers will also cause backlogs in the system as it is currently arranged.
“Sure the diabetes sufferers will also affect others that use healthcare services, as care could deteriorate,” says Sari Koski of the Diabetes Association. “Resources simply aren’t sufficient.”
The National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) estimates that diabetes has a negative effect on the economy equivalent to around one percent of GDP, or around two billion euros.
“It already takes up nearly 15 percent of the healthcare budget,” says Metsäniemi. “In addition to direct health costs, it also causes early retirements. Poor diabetes management also causes a lot of absences from work.” (more)
Read the whole story here: http://yle.fi/uutiset/finland_struggles_to_deal_with_diabetes_explosion/7169108
Source: YLE