Regional socio-economic factors influencing diabetes incidence: the case of Romania.

We examine the relation between average net wage, urbanization rate, women density, life expectancy, medical infrastructure and medical human resources, and the incidence of total, insulin, and non - insulin diabetes among Romanians. We fitted three panel regression models with interaction terms using official data comprising of 41 Romanian counties analysed between 2007 and 2014. After controlling for age groups, we found that the share of women in the overall population moderates the influence of salary level on diabetes incidence for the total and non - insulin groups, while for the insulin - dependent category, urbanization rate was positively associated with the number of newly recorded patients. Health infrastructure was relevant only for the total, and the insulin - dependent categories. Our results are in line with the sizeable disparities in diabetes that exist within other European countries and are useful for regional decision-makers planning adequate healthcare services and target proper risk groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]