Prevalence of undiagnosed dysglycemia in an emergency department observation unit

Publication Date

2016

Journal Title

Diabetes Metab Res Rev

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The proposed 2015 US Preventive Services Task Force guidelines recommend diabetes screening for individuals >/=45 years or demonstrating other risk factors for dysglycemia. Still, many patients with dysglycemia remain undiagnosed, and opportunities for early intervention are lost. METHODS: To test novel approaches for diagnosis using the haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c ) test, we screened adult patients who were admitted to an observation unit from the emergency department with no known history of pre-diabetes or diabetes. RESULTS: Of 256 subjects, 9% were newly diagnosed with diabetes and 52% were newly diagnosed with pre-diabetes. Of those aged 18-29 years, 33% were newly diagnosed with dysglycemia, while 55% of those aged 30-44 years and 70% of those aged >/=45 years were newly diagnosed with dysglycemia. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that regardless of age, a large proportion of patients in the emergency department observation unit have undiagnosed dysglycemia, an important finding given the large number of observation admissions. Copyright (c) 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Volume Number

32

Issue Number

1

Pages

82-6

Document Type

Article

EPub Date

2015/06/25

Status

Faculty, Northwell Researcher

Facility

School of Medicine; Northwell Health

Primary Department

Emergency Medicine

Additional Departments

Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism; Nursing

PMID

26104580

DOI

10.1002/dmrr.2674

For the public and Northwell Health campuses

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