Abstract:
Introduction: Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease that has been recognized by the Malaysian government as a major public
health problem with far reaching consequences not just for its adverse impact on the health of Malaysians, but also for the
economic burden it places on the health care system.
Objective: To identify anti-diabetic medication cost of type 2 diabetes mellitus treatment for outpatient visit in a teaching
hospital.
Methodology: Anti-diabetic medication cost was determined by conducting a retrospective audit on 1077 patient medical
records at Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM) Teaching Hospital in Kelantan.
Results: Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM) spent approximately RM1, 102,738 for anti-diabetics medications for
study population in 2008. The analysis show that average cost of medication per patient per year was RM 1, 023.8.
Conclusion: The cost of anti-diabetic drugs is the high. The most commonly prescribed anti-diabetic treatment regimen for
type 2 DM was gliclazide in combination with metformin. Much attention and effort should be directed towards determining
the burden of diabetes in the HUSM in economic terms
