Obesity May Be Best Screening Test for Diabetes

By Geoff Michaels, April 24th, 2013 | Health | 0 Comments

Researchers from Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center in The Netherlands sought to assess the yield of targeted screening for diabetes in the primary care setting and to assess the diagnostic value of known risk factors for the development of diabetes. The Diabscreen Study was conducted at 11 family practices with a total of 49,229 patients. The researchers conducted stepwise diabetes screening on adults aged 45 to 75 years based on risk factors and laboratory tests. They found that this stepwise screening procedure slightly increased the number of cases of diabetes diagnosed. Among the risk factors studied, obesity was the best predictor of undiagnosed diabetes.

Based on these findings, the researchers suggest that diabetes screening in primary care could target middle-aged and older adults with obesity. They also concluded that a targeted diabetes screening program can be performed systematically with an efficient use of resources and few drawbacks for both patients and health care workers. However, additional research is needed to determine if this type of diabetes screening program is cost-effective.