EVALUATION OF PREDIABETES IN HIGH RISK POPULATION OF KASHMIR VALLEY

Background: To evaluate pre diabetes and diabetes in patients with clinical risk factors and or symptoms who have been previously undiagnosed.

Methods: A cross-sectional cohort study of 783 patients, carried at a tertiary health care centre using diagnostic tools of oral glucose challenge test (GCT), overnight fat standard oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) and HbA1C estimation, and criteria of standard guidelines applied for diagnosis of individual at risk of prediabetes and diabetes.

Results: Among the studied subjects, 588 (75.1%) were hypertensive, 67 (8.6%) had history of vascular disease, 84 (10.7%) had dyslipidemia and 78 (10%) carried family history of diabetes. On GCT, 266 (34%) subjects had levels of plasma glucose more than cut off of 140mg/dl. A high sensitivity (92.59%), specificity (84.56%) was seen among diabetes, while as it was 75.58% and 84.56% among the subjects with pre-diabetes, and HbA1c > 5.5% was observed in 298 (38.1%) patients. The diabetics had mean BMI of 27.75kg/m² compared to 26.04kg/m² in pre-diabetics, and mean age for diabetic and pre-diabetics was 52.68 and 51.7 years, respectively.

Conclusion: GCT screening would be an accurate, convenient and relatively in expensive way to detect pre-diabetes and previously unrecognized diabetes. Large scale surveys are suggested for better outcome.