Diabetes Screening for Everyone Over 45 Recommended

All Americans 45 and older should be screened for type 2 diabetes as well as prediabetes, according to the US Preventive Services Task Force.

“The effects of lifestyle interventions to prevent or delay progression to diabetes were consistent across a substantive body of literature,” states a recently released USPSTF draft recommendation statement. “The potential harms of measuring blood glucose and initiating lifestyle modifications that include healthy eating behaviors and increased physical activity are small to none, leading the USPSTF to conclude with moderate certainty that these interventions have a moderate net benefit.”

Unlike type 1 diabetes, in which the immune system attacks the body’s insulin-producing beta cells, type 2 involves a gradually reduction in the body’s ability to use insulin properly, resulting in excessively high blood glucose levels. This can lead to such conditions as cardiovascular and kidney disease as well as vision problems and limb loss.

Diabetes tests include checking a person’s fasting glucose levels, which should be below 100 mg/dL. Glucose levels between 100 and 125 mg/dL fall in the prediabetes range; anything over 125 is considered to be diabetes.

Another test, hemoglobin A1c, measures glucose levels over time.

In addition to advancing age, other diabetes risk factors include overweight or obesity and having a first-degree relative with diabetes. Women who have polycystic ovarian syndrome or have had diabetes during pregnancy (gestational diabetes) are also at increased risk.