Abstract
Purpose :
With the rising cost of diabetes medications, it is relevant to question whether
patients using strategies to reduce their drug costs and have worse diabetes-related
retinopathy (DR), requiring treatment, and additional expense. We performed a clinical survey
study to determine if there were differences in the use of cost saving methods in patients with
or without diabetes, as well as in patients that required treatment for DR.
Methods :
A 6-question survey was collected from people with and without DR. Information
regarding need for treatment, age, gender, and insurance status was also collected. The survey
questions were taken in part from the larger National Health Interview Survey. Questions
included: During the past 12 months have you: Skipped medication doses to save money? Took
less medicine to save money? Delayed filling a prescription to save money? Asked your doctor
for a lower-cost medication to save money? Bought prescription drugs from another country to
save money? Used alternative therapies to save money? If the respondent reported yes to any
one of the questions they were recorded as having used a cost saving strategy. Complete
surveys from 252 patients were collected from two clinics – one general Ophthalmology and
one Retina only. Logistic regression was performed using Stata.
Results :
Of the responders, average age was 63.4 years (range of 19-96), 86.6% had insurance,
53.9% were female, 47.2% had diabetes, and 39.4% required treatment for DR. Cost saving
strategies were used in 54.3% of those surveyed. Among those with diabetes there is 7%
increased odds (OR 1.07) of using cost savings strategies during the previous 12-months. For
those who required treatment for DR, there was 45% increased odds (OR 1.45) of using cost
savings strategies compared to participants with diabetes that did not require treatment.
Lastly, among those with insurance there was 94% decreased odds of using cost savings
strategies compared to those without insurance (OR 0.06; 95%CI (0.01,0.28); p<0.001).
Conclusions :
Our study found that cost saving strategies were more commonly practiced by
those who were uninsured and those who required treatment for DR. Unfortunately, the long-
term result of this approach could be leading to an increase in the stages of DR requiring
additional medical treatments and cost.
This is a 2020 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.