Yes No Don’t know Yes No Don’t know Yes Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No N 47 59 90 98 51 76 57 14 77 60 11 83 66 7 39 53 97 46 103 % 31% 39.5% 60.5% 65.7% 34.2% 51% 38.2% 9.4% 30.8% 69.2% 51.6% 40.2% 7.4% 55.7% 44.3% 15.2% 84.8% 35% 65% Patient Characteristics No DM related Complications On insulin On oral hypoglycemic agents DM Eye related complications Heart attack High cholesterol Hypertension Stroke Al-Maskari et al. BMC Public Health 2010, 10:679 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/10/679 Page 7 of 10 Table 5 Average Annual Treatment Costs in US $ by DM Patient Complications in the UAE during 2004 (Weighted, N = 150) Average (Mean) $ Cost Std. Deviation 1,605 7,086 3,760 4,262 7,079 6,445 3,298 5,957 5,557 3,258 6,532 3,680 3,681 6,210 3,807 7,261 6,454 5,776 4,887 1,206 6,739 4,696 5,043 6,975 6,590 4,057 6,601 8,230 2,955 6,786 4,260 4,105 6,432 4,748 5,073 7,368 5,038 6,308 Foot or leg ulcer or sore not healed for more than a month Discussion This is the first study assessing the costs of diabetes care in the UAE. Despite numerous limitations, the study was able to assess and analyze DM patients’ management costs in the UAE and to present esti- mates that would hopefully help directing attention to the sizeable financial burden of the disease, for the first time in the UAE. To do that the study analyzed streams of DM patients’ management costs, based on patients’ profiles, for those without DM complications during one year. The study revealed that the average management costs per diabetic patient without complications in the UAE were $1,605 (SD ± $1,473) compared to $5,645 (SD ± $5,966) for those with DM complications. As expected costs were substantial but varied significantly with the initial mode of diagnosis, with the highest costs incurred by those diagnosed incidentally. Delay in diagnosis can directly increase complications and then lead to higher costs. Addition- ally, the presence of DM related complications, conco- mitant diseases such as hypertension, disease duration, age, insulin dependence and a history of myocardial infarction were shown to have multiplicative effect on patients’ management costs. This clearly shows the Table 6 Average Annual Treatment Costs in US $ by DM Patient Complications in the UAE during 2004 (Weighted, N = 150) Average Annual Treatment Costs Hospital Costs Ratio No complications 1,605 135 0 Microvascular Compliations 3,453 358 2.654500726 Macrovascular Complications 10,300 761 5.646071947 Both Macro + Microvascular Complications 15,104 541 4.016776899