New Draft Recommendation On Screening Hopes to Catch Undiagnosed Cases of Type 2 Diabetes and Prediabetes

Twitter summary: USPSTF releases draft rec. on #T2D screening – defines “at risk” population as 45+, overweight/obese, or 1^st–degree relative w/ #diabetes

The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recently released a draft recommendation on screening for abnormal glucose and type 2 diabetes. The recommendation advocates that adults who are 45 years or older, are overweight or obese, and/or have a first-degree relative (i.e., a parent, sibling, or child) with diabetes should be considered “at risk” and screened for type 2 diabetes or other glucose abnormalities. This new recommendation is a significant expansion from the previous 2008 recommendation, which only defined people with high blood pressure as “at risk” for type 2 diabetes. A 2013 study from the American Journal of Preventative Medicine found that this previous recommendations failed to identify more than half of the undiagnosed diabetes cases. This upgraded recommendation, while not yet finalized, would be a positive step towards better diagnosing of type 2 diabetes and prediabetes.

Diagnosing type 2 diabetes earlier must become a greater national priority – in the US, 29.1 million individuals have diabetes and an estimated eight million of those cases are undiagnosed. Undiagnosed diabetes costs the US an estimated $18 billion annually, according to the ADA. In addition, an estimated 86 million American adults have prediabetes, and 90% of them don’t know it – see our slides on this unmet need here.

The USPSTF statement is currently available as a draft to receive public input until November 3 – please visit here if you are interested in submitting feedback. –MA/AB/KC