Al-Maskari et al. BMC Public Health 2010, 10:679 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/10/679 Page 8 of 10 Figure 1 Effect of DM Complications on the Average Cost per Patient in the UAE during 2004 (n = 150). impact of diabetes related late complications on the cost. Similar conclusions have been drawn by other studies [19,20]. Hospital admissions accounts for the largest part of diabetes cost, the extra need for inpatient hospital care for patients who have developed late complications will greatly affect cost since hospital bed-day has a relatively high unit cost compared with other resources and over- all medication costs. Furthermore, most diabetics on oral hypoglycemic agents receive insulin soon after hos- pital admission for complications and this further increase the costs. Our estimates appear to be of the same order of mag- nitude as those from Western countries, which seems logical as health care facilities in the UAE are of similar or even higher standard compared to those in many developed countries [13]. The comparison with develop- ing countries in Asia and Africa is more difficult due to lack of information on patients’ health care expenditures from most of these countries. However, where data are available they suggest -as expected - much lower levels of expenditure. For example, a recent study assessing the treatment costs of diabetics in Karachi - Pakistan [21] estimated the annual mean treatment costs per DM patient to be $197 only. Another example is a recent study from Iran in 2009, which gave an annual cost fig- ure of US$ 152 per DM patient [9]. Similarly, in Tunisia, an analysis in 1994 estimated an annual cost figure as low as US$ 117 [10], in Egypt costs were even lower [11] and a recent study in Sudan showed direct costs to amount USD 175 per year [12]. Middle income coun- tries, such as those in Latin America and the Caribbean region, tend to be in-between Western and developing countries [22]. Of course, treatment costs exclude many intangible costs which are also very high in developing countries. For example, the World Bank and WHO, Figure 2 Effect of DM Complications on Hospitalization Cost per Patient in the UAE during 2004 (n = 150).