AimTo estimate the direct, indirect, and intangible costs associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus in Italy in 1998. To evaluate the economic impact of diabetic complications, and to investigate drug treatment patterns and associated costs in patients with type 2 diabetes.MethodsThe Italian arm of an international study (COsts ofDiabetes inEurope – Type 2 [CODE-2], a descriptive, cross-sectional survey) was set up to collect information retrospectively by means of questionnaires from a sample of 1263 patients. Resource use was measured in monetary terms using a set of costs and tariffs. Intangible costs were estimated using the EuroQol questionnaire.ResultsThe average yearly cost for medical resources for a patient with type 2 diabetes was 2991 Euro, whereas the estimated cost for the whole population with type 2 diabetes was about 5170 million Euro. This corresponds to 6.65% of the total healthcare expenditure (public and private) in Italy. Of direct costs, 29% was spent for the treatment of diabetes and 39% for the treatment of diabetic complications; while the remaining 32% was spent for healthcare not related to diabetes. Quality of life score in patients with type 2 diabetes (EuroQoL overall average score) was 0.68.ConclusionsType 2 diabetes has a high cost to society. The major cost component is due to the care of diabetic complications, not to the treatment of the illness itself; in particular, drug costs represent a relatively small proportion of such treatment cost.