ATLANTA, Aug. 28 (UPI) -- U.S. health officials calculated it costs $85,000 to treat a patient with type 2 diabetes over his or her lifetime.
Xiaohui Zhuo of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta ran a computer model based on national data on the costs of diabetes.
"Persons with diabetes pay on average over $85,000 treating the disease over his or her lifetime," Zhuo said in a statement.
This amount includes treatment for diabetes such as insulin, and treatment for conditions that grow from diabetes, such as kidney disease, heart disease and stroke.
Zhou said this puts numbers behind the need to prevent type 2 diabetes or to control it if people have the disease. Diet and physical activity can help both prevent and control type 2 diabetes, Zhou said.
The study was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
