Evidence map›Paper›PMID 23723724›Full record

ArticleJournal of family & community medicine2013

Economic costs of diabetes in Saudi Arabia.

Abdulkarim K Alhowaish

Abstract read
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Article in Journal of family & community medicine, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 88 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
88citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

88 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Trial
  3. Trial
  4. A real-world, bottom-up cost of illness analysis of type 2 diabetes mellitus from a tertiary hospital in Saudi Arabia.Saudi pharmaceutical journal : SPJ : the official publication of the Saudi Pharmaceutical Society · 2026
    Article
  5. Review
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Diabetes Technology in Saudi Arabia: Current Status and Future Directions.Journal of diabetes science and technology · 2025
    Review
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Observational
  13. Article
  14. The Burden of Obesity in Saudi Arabia: A Real-World Cost-of-Illness Study.ClinicoEconomics and outcomes research : CEOR · 2025
    Article
  15. Review
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Review

28 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author.

Abdulkarim K AlhowaishDepartment of Urban and Regional Planning, College of Architecture and Planning, University of Dammam, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundDiabetes imposes a large economic burden on the individual, national healthcare systems, and countries.

objectiveTo determine the economic impact of diabetes mellitus on Saudi healthcare system, both now and in the future. MATERIALS AND

methodsThis research study uses a prevalence-based approach that combines the demographics of the population (classified by nationality, sex and age group) with and without diagnosed diabetes in 1992 and 2010. The economic impact of diabetes is estimated in this study, using secondary sources of information provided by Ministry of Health, Ministry of Finance and Central Department of Statistics and Information databases.

resultsPeople diagnosed with diabetes, on average, have medical healthcare expenditures that are ten times higher ($3,686 vs. $380) than what expenditures would be in the absence of diabetes. Over 96% of all medical healthcare expenditures attributed to diabetes are incurred by persons of Saudi nationality, with the remaining 4% incurred by persons of non-Saudi nationality. The population age 45-60 incurs 45% of diabetes-attributed costs, with the remaining population under age 15 incurs 3.8%, age 15-44 incurs 27.5%, and age 60 and above incurs 23.8%.

conclusionThe actual national healthcare burden because of diabetes is likely to exceed the $0.87 billion estimated in this study, because it omits the indirect costs associated with diabetes, such as absenteeism, lost productivity from disease-related absenteeism, unemployment from disease-related disability, lost productivity due to early mortality by disease. The social cost of intangibles such as pain and suffering and care provided by non-paid caregivers as well as healthcare system administrative costs, cost of medications, clinician training programs, and research and infrastructure development is also omitted from this research study. Further studies are needed to confirm the present findings and to improve our understanding of economic costs of diabetes and its related complications.

Indexed as

Diabetes mellituseconomic costshealthcare systemSaudi Arabia

Identifiers

PMID23723724
PMCPMC3663158

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-SA
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.