A large economic evaluation published in the JAMA has found that adults with type 2 diabetes have substantially greater financial hardship than those without the condition, including higher rates of medical and nonmedical debt, below-prime credit scores, bankruptcies, and foreclosures.
The study analyzed health and credit records of 166,285 adults receiving care at a primary care medical center in Ohio between October 2017 and December 2021. Among them, 41.7% had type 2 diabetes. Researchers compared patients with and without diabetes while adjusting for factors like age, race, sex, ethnicity, earnings, and insurance type.
Patients with diabetes had an increased likelihood of adverse financial outcomes (64.5% vs 49.9%) and were more likely to have a below-prime credit score (59.7% vs 45.9%), medical debt in collections (36.9% vs 23.9%), and nonmedical debt in collections (38.4% vs 27.7%). 
These patients also had higher rates of delinquent debt (23.3% vs 15.6%), debt charge-offs (15.4% vs 10.1%), bankruptcy filings (2.1% vs 1.4%), and foreclosures (0.5% vs 0.3%). Average credit scores were lower for those with diabetes (618.7 vs 664.2), and both delinquent and nonmedical debt amounts were significantly higher.
Financial risk was especially elevated among patients who were Black, Hispanic, enrolled in Medicaid, female, younger than 65, or without earned income.