The cost per head of new cases of type 2 diabetes in the United Kingdom is expected to be higher than any other large European country by 2020. This is according to research and analysis recently carried out by the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies.

The same type of cost per head of new diabetes cases in 2020 is expected to reach almost 19 Euros in the United Kingdom, compared to the level of just over 10 Euros in Italy.

It is estimated that the total cost in economic terms of the condition in the high-income European countries included in the study, which are currently France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK, is expected to be approximately 883 million Euros in 2020.

The authors of this analysis explained that the results in this study include indirect costs caused by lost productivity due to work absence, disability, early retirement and premature death, among incident diabetes cases directly linked and attributable to factors, such as bad diet and a lack of physical activity. The authors of the report also commented that "While our estimates are restricted to diabetes, they provide a fuller picture of the likely future costs that can be attributed to contemporary dietary and physical activity patterns."