Endocrinol Metab.  2016 Jun;31(2):292-299. 10.3803/EnM.2016.31.2.292.

Trends in Diabetes Incidence in the Last Decade Based on Korean National Health Insurance Claims Data

• Song SO
• Lee YH
• Kim DW
• Song YD
• Nam JY
• Park KH
• Kim DJ
• Park SW
• Lee HC
• Lee BW

• KMID: 2308860
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3803/EnM.2016.31.2.292

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Epidemiological data is useful to estimate the necessary manpower and resources used for disease control and prevention of prevalent chronic diseases. We aimed to evaluate the incidence of diabetes and identify its trends based on the claims data from the National Health Insurance Service database over the last decade.
METHODS
We extracted claims data on diabetes as the principal and first additional diagnoses of National Health Insurance from January 2003 to December 2012. We investigated the number of newly claimed subjects with diabetes codes, the number of claims and the demographic characteristics of this population.
RESULTS
Total numbers of claimed cases and populations with diabetes continuously increased from 1,377,319 in 2003 to 2,571,067 by 2012. However, the annual number of newly claimed diabetic subjects decreased in the last decade. The total number of new claim patients with diabetes codes decreased as 30.9% over 2005 to 2009. Since 2009, the incidence of new diabetes claim patients has not experienced significant change. The 9-year average incidence rate was 0.98% and 1.01% in men and women, respectively. The data showed an increasing proportion of new diabetic subjects of younger age (<60 years) combined with a sharply decreasing proportion of subjects of older age (≥60 years).
CONCLUSION
There were increasing numbers of newly claimed subjects with diabetes codes of younger age over the last 10 years. This increasing number of diabetic patients will require management throughout their life courses because Korea is rapidly becoming an aging society.

Keyword

Diabetes; Incidence; Claims data; Korea

MeSH Terms

Aging
Chronic Disease
Diagnosis
Female
Humans
Incidence*
Korea
Male
National Health Programs*

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Changes in the age of new claim patients from 2004 to 2012. Age distribution of new claim patients from 2004 to 2012.

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  Fig. 2 Observed and predicted annual numbers of diabetes claim patients and cases. (A) Observed and predicted annual numbers of total diabetes claim patients. (B) Observed and predicted annual numbers of total diabetes claim cases. (C) Observed and predicted annual incidence of new diabetes claim patients. CI, confidence interval.

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