Feasibility of opportunistic screening for type 2 diabetes mellitus: Need for interventions to improve follow up

Abstract

Objective: To determine the feasibility of opportunistic screening for type 2 diabetes (T2DM) among adult attendees of medicine outpatient department (OPD) at a tertiary care hospital in Puducherry district, India. Materials and Methods: A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted among nonpregnant nondiabetic adults above 30 years of age attending MOPD to screen for diabetes mellitus (DM). Those with random blood glucose of 6.1 mM/l or more were sent for definitive tests; fasting plasma glucose and post prandial (PP) plasma glucose. Double data entry and validation was done. Results: A total of 510 outpatients were tested for random blood glucose: 278 (54.5%) had blood glucose above the cut off. Out of 278, 83 (29.9%) returned for definitive tests: 18 [21.7%, 0.95 CI: 14.2%, 31.7%] had either fasting plasma glucose and/or PP plasma glucose in diabetic range and 16 (19.3%, 0.95 CI: 12.2%, 29.1%) had impaired fasting glucose and/or impaired glucose tolerance. Case detection (screening yield) of diabetes in the adult outpatients was 3.5% (0.95 CI: 2.2%, 5.5%). Conclusion: Compliance or follow-up for definitive tests was poor resulting in low screening yield. Future studies should focus on interventions to improve follow up of outpatients.