Diabetes is a clinical area of high expenditure. This report presents national level trends in prescribing for diabetes in England with information that illustrates the increasing prevalence of diabetes and obesity in England.
It looks at information on primary and secondary care prescribing for diabetes from 2002 to 2008. The number of prescription items and Net Ingredient Cost (NIC) are used to analyse volume, expenditure and trends in the prescribing of insulin, oral anti-diabetic drugs and diagnostic and monitoring agents.
The report has been produced jointly by The NHS Information Centre and the Yorkshire and Humber Public Health Observatory (YHPHO), and is an update to an earlier report published in November 2007.