Abstract
We read with great interest the study by Young et al on the impact of population-level HbA1c screening on reducing diabetes diagnostic delay in middle-aged adults. Based on HbA1c levels among UK Biobank participants aged 40-70 years, 1% of 166,846 participants were found to have undiagnosed diabetes.
The median time to clinical diagnosis for those with undiagnosed diabetes was 2.2 years. As a tool for the diagnosis of diabetes and prediabetes (impaired glucose tolerance and/or impaired fasting glucose), HbA1c screening is not yet universally accepted; nevertheless, it provides an interesting picture of the state of dysglycaemic disorders among the population.
In our cross-sectional study conducted in the Czech Republic among a population aged 25-64 years (n=1189), we found that, based on HbA1c levels, 16.7% of participants with diabetes were undiagnosed and 27.8% of participants had prediabetes.