Abstracts by key term: Chronic diseases
40 years ago, the WHO declared that at least 50 percent of diabetes cases worldwide could be prevented and - as can be read in the Diabetes Health Report 2013 (1, p. 23) - called for actions to prevent this disease. However, the call received little attention back then - much like it does today. Over these many years, the German healthcare system has invested billions to care for people with this disease. According to the CODE-2 study (2), the costs caused by patients with type 2 diabetes in Germany amounted to around 15.7 million euros in 1998 - which has since extrapolated to many hundreds of billions of euros. But: Despite this immense investment, why are there still deficits in diabetic care as one of the most cost-intensive chronic diseases? It is reasonable to assume that the fundamental problem of almost all “non-communicable diseases” - enabling the people affected to self-manage and motivating lifestyle changes - cannot be overcome with the current acute care approach alone.