Type 2 diabetes mellitus in China: a preventable economic burden.

Objectives: To estimate the direct and indirect costs of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in China in 2007 and project these costs for the year 2030, and to examine and compare the benefits of selected interventions.

Study Design: Annual direct costs of medical and nonmedical care and indirect costs of income losses were estimated through case calculation of data from a cross-sectional survey carried out in 4 major Chinese cities from March 2007 to September 2007.

Methods: The subjects were consecutively recruited T2DM outpatients and inpatients from 20 secondary and tertiary hospitals using selection probability proportional to size sampling.