Objectives

To examine the economic burden of diabetes mellitus (DM) on medical expenditure among patients with respiratory failure (RF) requiring mechanical ventilation during hospitalization.

Methods

We extracted the data from Taiwan National Health Research Insurance Database for those adult patients on their first hospitalization for RF requiring mechanical ventilation between 2004 and 2010. We examined associations between medical expenditure and the presence of comorbid DM. We performed independent t tests, chi-square tests, and multivariate linear regression analysis to identify factors associated with excess medical expenditure.

Results

Of 347,961 patients hospitalized with first occurrence of RF requiring mechanical ventilation, 123,023 (35.36%) patients were documented to have a previous diagnosis of DM. Patients with RF and DM were sicker and consumed more health care resources than did patients with RF without DM. After adjusting for the specified covariates, mechanically ventilated patients with RF and DM consumed at least US $618 more of total inpatient medical expenditure than did patients with RF without DM. There were statistically significant interactions between age and DM on their total inpatient medical expenditure regardless of discharge status.

Conclusions

DM was associated with more severe disease status and higher consumption of medical expenditure during hospitalizations among mechanically ventilated patients due to first occurrence of RF in Taiwan. These findings provide scientific evidence to facilitate appropriate resource allocation and formulate programs for higher quality of care in the future in Taiwan and other countries.