Colorado Springs Business Journal
July 29,2009
10-city challenge shows diabetes can be controlled
Nearly 14 months ago, 174 City of Colorado Springs employees with diabetes entered the Diabetes 10-City Challenge, a program to test how much diabetes and its treatment costs could be controlled.
They exercised, ate healthy foods and met regularly with a pharmacist to track insulin levels, blood pressure and cholesterol.
The results: more than 65 percent of them reduced indicators for the disease and reported feeling better. And, the average medical savings totaled $1,234 per person.
Nationwide, the program showed average total health care savings of $1,079 per patient.
A total of 573 people participated in the program for 14.8 months.
Treatment for the more than 23 million Americans who have diabetes is estimated to cost of $174 billion a year.
According to the American Pharmacists Association:
200,000 people die of diabetes related complications every year.
Thousands are affected by blindness, kidney failure and problems of the lower extremities.
In 2007, diabetes was responsible for 15 million absent work days, 120 million work days with reduced performance and additional 107 million work days lost due to unemployment disability.