“The AMA is disappointed by the final recommendations released today from the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) on diabetes screening, which are significantly different than the draft recommendations initially released by the Task Force last fall. The Task Force found screening adults ages 40 to 70 who are overweight or obese can identify individuals with abnormal blood glucose levels before it progresses to diabetes and that offering or referring them to intensive lifestyle interventions can help prevent or delay complications from the disease”, Reuters Health reported.
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Starting October. 27, the Task Force recommends all overweight adults aged 40 to 70 years old should be subjected to tests for the disease even if they do not present symptoms.
Abnormal blood sugar happens when they body doesn’t break down and use sugar in the right way.
The previous recommendation recommended screening people with hypertension.
In 2008, USPSTF recommended diabetes testing for individuals with high blood pressure; however, the team could not gather sufficient proof to justify the same protocol for overweight individuals with no clinical presentation of diabetes.
Since then, six studies found that lifestyle changes to prevent or delay diabetes are consistently beneficial, say the authors of the new recommendation, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
The task force wants to prevent diabetes before it becomes a problem in as many people as possible.
According to Health Day, abnormal blood sugar levels and type 2 diabetes have become a pressing concern, and the USPSTF has urged that adults go see their doctors immediately for testing.
The USPSTF still isn’t sure how frequently people should receive blood screens for diabetes, but the latest computer models suggest that every three years would be a good time frame.
Obesity remains a major risk factor for diabetes, and controlling the disease is essential.
As per the current screening recommendations by the American Diabetes Association, people aged 45 years or older should undergo routine screening and earlier screening for those having many risk factors for type-2 diabetes.
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“Intensive lifestyle interventions – and by that I mean multiple sessions, with a trained educator that focus on improving diet and increasing physical activity – were effective in reducing the progression…to diabetes, and also showed improvement in cardiovascular risk factors”, Pignone says. “Ideally, the physician and patient work together to determine the appropriateness of screening”.
