Increased clinical and economic advantage of proteinuric screening and intervention (PROSIT project) in type 2 diabetics

Background and objective: Even though there are simple and cost-effective m eans for the early diagnosis of diabetic nephropathy, only a small proporti on of diabetics in Germany is regularly tests for microalbuminuria. On the basis of evidence-based knowledge and of international guidelines the PROSI T project (proteinuria screening and intervention) aims to make good this d eficiency in the German Federal Republic by introducing nephropathy screeni ng and a structured intervention to improve blood sugar and blood pressure reglation, optimizing lipid metabolism and nutritional intake. It was the a im of this study to assess with a computer-aided diabetes model the clinica l value and cost-effectiveness of such an intervention. Patients and methods: From data collected for 589 diabetics who participate d in the PROSIT project, the short-time effects after one year on HbA(1c), systolic blood pressure and lipid levels were obtained and cost-effectivene ss compared with that of standard care. Life expectancy, life-time costs to be met by health insurance and event frequency of the diabetic nephropathy stages were calculated with a Markov model for type 2 diabetics. Results: PROSIT improved individual life expectancy by 0.23 years with redu ction of life-time costs by DM 9,772 (ca. $ 4,900). The cumulative incidenc e of microalbuminuria was lowered by 30.5%, that of terminal renal failure by 55.9%. Even after discounting the results (i.e. the inclusion of time pr eference for cost and benefit) and stepwise changes of all variables by +/- 10%, PROSIT remained the more cost-effective variant. Conclusion: From a health economy viewpoint PROSIT is superior to standard management. Early recognition of albuminuria and the introduction of a mult ifactorial treatment strategy make it possible to delay progression to term inal renal failure. In addition to its clinical benefits, prevention of dia lysis and transplantation would reduce the annual savings of the health car e system by several billion DM.