Screening for Type 2 Diabetes

Under increasing burden of diabetes and in the light of evidences it is clear that diabetes and its complication are preventable, screening for diabetes, which aims at early detecting and treating patients with diabetes to reduce the diabetic complications, and at the same time identifying individuals at high risk for diabetes to prevent or delay the onset of diabetes, has been recommended by several professional organizations such as the World Health Organization, the International Diabetes Federation, and the American Diabetes Association. Various screening programs have been developed and conducted by applying different screening tools including fasting or random capillary blood glucose tests, fasting and post challenge plasma glucose tests, HbA1c test, and a number of risk assessment questionnaires (or scores). The cost-effectiveness and the impact on the participants of these screening programs have not been fully evaluated, but the screening tests used in these programs have been validated in terms of discrimination, calibration and reclassification of individuals with and without the events.

Keywords: Diabetes screening, screening tests, diabetes risk score, discrimination, calibration, reclassification.