Participation in National Diabetes Prevention Program Is Cost-Saving

TUESDAY, Jan. 7, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Participants with prediabetes enrolled in the National Diabetes Prevention Program (NDPP) have a reduction in direct medical costs over two years, according to a study published online Nov. 20 in Diabetes Care.

Shihchen Kuo, from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and colleagues evaluated the real-world cost-effectiveness of the NDPP. The analysis included individual-level health insurance claims and survey data for 5,948 adults with prediabetes who enrolled (575 individuals) or did not enroll (5,373 individuals) in the NDPP.

The researchers found that compared with nonenrollees, each NDPP enrollee had an average reduction of $4,552 in two-year total direct medical costs. Hospitalizations, outpatient visits, and emergency room visits drove cost savings. There were no significant differences between the groups for EuroQol 5-Dimension 5-level questionnaire utility scores or quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) gained over two years. Enrollment in the NDPP had an 88 percent probability of saving money and 84 percent probability of being cost-effective at a willingness-to-pay threshold of $100,000/QALY gained over two years.

“If delivered to a larger prediabetes population with longer-term follow-up, the NDPP could potentially reduce health care costs and improve QALYs for millions of American adults with prediabetes,” the authors write.

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