Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Reports Findings in Type 2 Diabetes (Health insurance status and its determinants among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in a tertiary teaching hospital in Malaysia): Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases and Conditions – Type 2 Diabetes

2022 MAY 18 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- New research on Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases and Conditions - Type 2 Diabetes is the subject of a report. According to news reporting out of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, by NewsRx editors, research stated, “Even in a country with a tax-based healthcare financing system, health insurance can play an important role, especially in the management of chronic diseases with high disease and economic burden such as Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM). The insurance coverage among T2DM patients in Malaysia is currently unclear.”

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, “The aim of this study was to determine the insurance status of T2DM patients in public and private healthcare facilities in Malaysia, and the association between this status and patients’ sociodemographic and economic factors. A cross-sectional study among T2DM patients seeking inpatient or outpatient treatment at a public tertiary hospital (Hospital Canselor Tuanku Muhriz) and a private tertiary hospital (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Specialist Centre) in Kuala Lumpur between August 2019 and March 2020. Patients were identified via convenience sampling using a self-administered questionnaire. Data collection focused on identifying insurance status as the dependent factor while the independent factors were the patients’ sociodemographic characteristics and economic factors. Of 400 T2DM patients, 313 responded (response rate, 78.3%) and 76.0% were uninsured. About 69.6% of the respondents had low monthly incomes of <RM5000. Two-thirds of participants (59.1%) spent RM100-500 for outpatient visits whilst 58.5% spent <RM100 on medicines per month (RM1 = USD0.244). Patients who visited a private facility had five times more likely to have insurance than patients who visited a public facility. Participants aged 18-49 years with higher education levels were 4.8 times more likely to be insured than participants aged 50 years with low education levels (2 times). The majority of T2DM patients were uninsured.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “The main factors determining health insurance status were public facilities, age of 50 years, low education level, unemployment, and monthly expenditure on medicines.”

For more information on this research see: Health insurance status and its determinants among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in a tertiary teaching hospital in Malaysia. PLOS ONE, 2022;17(5). PLOS ONE can be contacted at: Public Library Science, 1160 Battery Street, Ste 100, San Francisco, CA 94111, USA. (Public Library of Science - www.plos.org; PLOS ONE - www.plosone.org)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Aniza Ismail, Faculty of Medicine, Dept. of Community Health, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Additional authors for this research include Essam Ali Al-Sanaani, Mohd Rizal Abdul Manaf, Leny Suzana Suddin, Norlaila Mustafa, Norlela Sukor, Alabed Ali A. Alabed, Ahmed Abdelmajed Alkhodary and Syed Mohamed Aljunid.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0267897. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

Publisher contact information for the journal PLOS ONE is: Public Library Science, 1160 Battery Street, Ste 100, San Francisco, CA 94111, USA.

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