Comparison of the fasting and the 2-h glucose criteria for diabetes in different Asian cohorts

Aims/hypothesis. The American Diabetes Association recommended that only a single fasting plasma glucose of greater than or equal to 7.0 mmol/l should be used for diagnosing diabetes in epidemiological studies and did not recommend using a 2-h oral glucose tolerance test. We evaluated the effect of diagnostic changes on the prevalence of diabetes and on the choice of subjects diagnosed with diabetes. Methods. Existing epidemiological data collected from Asian people between 30 and 89 years of age, was re-analysed separately in 11 population-based studies (n = 17 666), 6 pre-selected hyperglycaemic cohorts (n = 12 221) and one suspected diabetic cohort (n = 8 382). Results. Among the 11 population-based studies, the new fasting glucose criteria resulted in an overall reduction of 1.8 % in the prevalence of diabetes, which ranged from a reduction of 4.8 % to an increase of 1.7 % in the different studies. Of 1215 subjects diagnosed with diabetes by either criteria, only 449 met both criteria, a concordance of 37 %. More than half of the diabetic subjects had isolated post-challenge hyperglycaemia and three quarters of the subjects with impaired glucose tolerance, according to the 2-h glucose criteria, were normal according to the fasting glucose criteria. Subjects diagnosed as diabetic based only on the 2-h glucose criteria were, on average, older than those with diabetes according to the fasting criteria. Conclusion/interpretation. The fasting and the 2-h glucose criteria diagnose different groups of subjects. It would therefore be inappropriate to use the fasting glucose criteria alone for screening diabetes in Asian populations. [Diabetologia (2000) 43: 1470–1475] Received: 2 June 2000 and in revised form: 27 July 2000