Epidemiology of diabetes in Poland

In 2016, the Task Force on assessment of the epidemiology of diabetes in Poland and statistical data quality concerning this area, chaired by Prof. Tomasz Zdrojewski, issued a report. Its summary is provided below:

Abstract

Objective:
The objective of the paper was to assess the number of people with diabetes in Poland by means of combined sources at national level and to evaluate usefulness of data from the insurance system in epidemiological analysis.

Methods:

The data were collected from the Polish National Health Fund (NFZ) and included the number of people using healthcare services contracted and billed by the NFZ described by the ICD code E10-E14 (services included primary care – POZ, outpatient care – AOS and hospitalization) and the number of people treated with reimbursed drugs with ATC code A10, V04, V07, as well as the results of the nationwide epidemiological survey NATPOL (to determine the number of undiagnosed patients), the Receptometr Sequence study on prescriptions and regional child diabetes registries.

Findings:

In 2013, there were 1.76 million people (0.98 million women and 0.79 million men) using medical services due to diabetes (E10-E14) and 2.13 million people (1.19 million women and 0.94 million men) purchasing reimbursed drugs or diabetes test strips. 0.04 million patients who used medical services did not buy prescribed drugs. In total, number of people using public insurance system because of diabetes was 2.17 million (1.22 million women and 0.96 million men), which presents 6.1% of women and 5.1% of men (4466/100 000 age standardized). If undiagnosed cases were included (36% of men and 15% of women) a total number of diabetic patients in Poland would be equal to 1.50 million men and 1.44 million women.

Conclusion:

In 2013, the prevalence of diabetes in Poland amounted to 7.6%. Data collected from national insurance system with a full coverage of a population can be treated as a reliable source of information concerning diseases with well-defined diagnosis and treatment.

Published: 6 September 2017

Contact

Polish Academy of Sciences
Palace of Culture and Science
Plac Defilad 1
00-901 Warsaw

V Faculty of Medical Sciences
phone +48 22 182 60 50
e-mail: wydzial_5@pan.pl