(Reuters Health) It’s currently recommended that people be screened for type 2 diabetes starting at age 45, particularly if they are overweight. But a new study suggests that it would be worthwhile to start type 2 diabetes screening earlier – between the ages of 30 and 45.
Sequential screening for type 2 diabetes is cost effective when started between the ages of 30 and 45 years and repeated every 3 to 5 years, researchers conclude in a report published this week in the Lancet medical journal.
Dr. Richard Kahn, from the American Diabetes Association, Alexandria, Virginia, and associates used a mathematical model to compare seven screening strategies (with start times ranging from age 30 to age 60 or upon diagnosis of high blood pressure, and repeated every 3 to 5 years until age 75) to no screening or maximum screening (every 6 months starting at age 30).
For the study, the researchers simulated a population of 325,000 non-diabetic 30-year-olds. The model showed that type 2 diabetes screening starting at 30 or 45 years of age is cost effective and may curb heart attacks, diabetes-related complications and death.
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I was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes in a hospital emergency room on 23 March 2007, less than a month shy of my forty-ninth birthday. Looking backwards, I have had symptoms of diabetes — especially frequent urination — since junior high school. (I’m most likely a slow/low secreter of insulin). All my gate-keepers missed diabetes, despite a variety of symptoms: Fatigue, thirst, and hunger, in addition to frequent urination.
The finger-prick test might have opened a physician’s eyes at some point along the way, altho’ I also had bloodwork on at least two or three different occasions in the years before my diagnosis.