ABSTRACT
Purpose@#To analyze the incidence and treatment costs associated with vision-threatening diabetic retinopathy (VTDR) in type 2 diabetes and to predict future VTDR populations and treatment expenditures. @*Methods@#Using the data from the National Health Insurance Service from 2006 to 2017, we analyzed VTDR treatment costs by year, sex, and age. Based on the results and changes in future population distributions, we estimated the future number and cost of treatments for VTDR. @*Results@#The number of treatments increased by 2.5-fold from 37,634 in 2006 to 96,214 in 2017, and treatment costs increased 3.4-fold from $13,528,587 in 2006 to $45,643,561 in 2017. When analyzed by year, age, and sex, all showed an increasing trend. Future number of treatments was estimated to increase from approximately 96,000 in 2017 to 220,000 by 2030 and treatment costs were projected to increase by 129% from about $45,643,561 in 2017 to about $1,043,055,262 by 2030. @*Conclusions@#As the incidence of VTDR rises due to an aging population and the frequency of intravitreal injections increases due to insurance reimbursement, future treatment expenditures for VTDR are expected to increase as well. Therefore, appropriate policies must be put in place now to secure medical and financial resources to manage VTDR and reduce medical expenditures in the future.