Doctors are not diagnosing and treating enough cases of prediabetes, a new University of Florida study found.
According to researchers, more than one third of all adults in the U.S. have prediabetes, which is a health condition that is defined by having higher than normal concentration levels of blood glucose. Although these levels are not high enough to be considered full-blown type 2 diabetes, about 15 to 30 percent of people with prediabetes will go on to develop diabetes.
"We know that prediabetes is considered one of the biggest risk factors for the development of diabetes," said lead investigator Arch G. Mainous III of the UF College of Public Health and Health Professions. "We also know that 90 percent of people who have prediabetes don't know they have it. So the question becomes, where is the doctor in all this? Is the doctor identifying people with prediabetes, telling them about it and providing treatment? That's what we wanted to find out."
Mainous and his colleagues examined data gathered from the 2012 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. They focused on patients, aged 45 and above, who had visited a general, family or internal medicine doctor. All of the patients had a blood test taken within the past 90 days of the survey.
The team found that 34 percent of the patients had blood glucose concentration levels that would qualify them as prediabetics based on the standards set by the American Diabetes Association. Out of this group of patients, only 23 percent of them had received treatment that was aimed at reducing their risk of diabetes.
The researchers were shocked to find out that even when results from recent blood tests were right in front of the doctors, they still managed to miss a diagnosis. The team stressed the importance of diagnosing and treating prediabetes, which can also increase one's risk of kidney disease and nerve damage.
"One of the keys to diabetes prevention is detection and management of people with prediabetes," Mainous said. "Identifying people with prediabetes and getting them some sort of treatment has been shown to be effective for slowing the progression to diabetes or stopping it altogether, and that is the goal of prevention. We don't want to manage half the population with diabetes. What we want to do is keep them from getting diabetes."
The study was published in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.
