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Diabetes Screening and Surveillance Programmes

Opportunities for Early Detection

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Disease Management & Health Outcomes

Summary

Although non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus is a common and serious disease, it is estimated that about half of the people with the disease are unaware of it, making it a candidate for early detection and screening. To date however, there is no universal agreement regarding the best screening method or the target population. Early treatment should improve long term prognosis but this remains to be proven.

During the screening process, many people will be found to have blood glucose levels thought to represent the ‘pre-clinical’ stage of diabetes. Although results of some recent studies are encouraging, there has not been any definitive proof that early detection and intervention can prevent this group from developing overt diabetes. This is currently the subject of a major clinical trial. Therefore, to reduce the burden of diabetes, it is equally important to have programmes supporting early screening and treatment of diabetic complications in patients known to have the disease. Establishing screening programmes to identify patients at high risk of developing complications, and concentrating intervention efforts on this group at an early stage, has great potential to reduce both the personal and economic burden of this chronic disease.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Diabetes Centre, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Missenden Road, Camperdown, New South Wales, 2050, Australia

    Jane E. Overland, Margaret McGill & Dennis K. Yue

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  1. Jane E. Overland
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  2. Margaret McGill
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  3. Dennis K. Yue
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Additional information

About the Authors: Jane Overland, MPH is currently enrolled in the PhD programme in the Faculty of Medicine, Sydney University, and is employed as a clinical nurse consultant. Her research interests include provision of diabetes care and health economics.

Margaret McGill is currently enrolled in the Masters of Medical Science programme in the Faculty of Medicine, Sydney University. She is employed as the manager of the Diabetes Centre, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, and her main research interest is diabetic complications.

Dennis K. Yue, PhD FRACP is Professor of Medicine and Director of Diabetes Services. His research interests include diabetes complications and provision of diabetes care.

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Overland, J.E., McGill, M. & Yue, D.K. Diabetes Screening and Surveillance Programmes. Dis-Manage-Health-Outcomes 2, 85–92 (1997). https://doi.org/10.2165/00115677-199702020-00004

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