The impact of population-level HbA1c screening on reducing diabetes diagnostic delay in middle-aged adults: a UK Biobank analysis
An erratum to this article was published (Diabetologia, Aug 2023 ↗)
Authors' conclusion
Our population-based study shows that HbA1c screening in adults aged 40-70 years can reduce the time to diabetes diagnosis by a median of 2.2 years compared with routine clinical care. The findings support the use of HbA1c screening to reduce the time for which individuals are living with undiagnosed diabetes.
Study context
- Population
- UK Biobank participants aged 40–70 years with HbA1c measured at enrolment (not fed back to participants/clinicians) and linked primary and secondary healthcare data; undiagnosed diabetes = enrolment HbA1c ≥48 mmol/mol (≥6.5%) without diabetes diagnosis166,846 without diabetes diagnosis
- Participants
- 179,923 participants
- Outcome
- Time from enrolment HbA1c measurement to subsequent clinical diabetes diagnosis in those with undiagnosed diabetes
- Follow-up
- Up to 10 years
Methodological detailsUK Biobank, linked primary and secondary healthcare data, Kaplan-Meier analysis, Cox regression
- UK Biobank
- Linked primary and secondary healthcare data
- Kaplan-Meier analysis
- Cox regression
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Median time to clinical diagnosis
2.2 years
Median HbA1c at clinical diagnosis
58.2 mmol/mol (IQR 51.0-80.0) (7.5% [6.8-9.5])
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes at enrolment
- Undiagnosed diabetes among participants without diabetes diagnosis
- 1.0% (1703/166,846)
- Median HbA1c at enrolment
- 51.3 mmol/mol (IQR 49.1-57.2) (6.8% [6.6-7.4])
- Additional diabetes cases relative to the 13,077 with a diagnosis
- 13.0%
- Pre-existing diabetes diagnosis
- 13,077, 7.3%
Factors associated with delayed diagnosis
- Female participants with lower HbA1c and BMI at enrolment experienced the longest delay to clinical diagnosis
Original publication
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →