Under increasing burden of diabetes and in the light of evidences it is clear that diabetes and
its complication are preventable, screening for diabetes, which aims at early detecting and treating
patients with diabetes to reduce the diabetic complications, and at the same time identifying individuals
at high risk for diabetes to prevent or delay the onset of diabetes, has been recommended by several
professional organizations such as the World Health Organization, the International Diabetes
Federation, and the American Diabetes Association. Various screening programs have been developed
and conducted by applying different screening tools including fasting or random capillary blood glucose
tests, fasting and post challenge plasma glucose tests, HbA1c test, and a number of risk assessment
questionnaires (or scores). The cost-effectiveness and the impact on the participants of these screening
programs have not been fully evaluated, but the screening tests used in these programs have been
validated in terms of discrimination, calibration and reclassification of individuals with and without the
events.
Keywords: Diabetes screening, screening tests, diabetes risk score, discrimination, calibration,
reclassification.
