Screening for diabetes potentially cost-effective for UK » Health » 24dash.com

New University of Leicester study provides ‘financial health check’

A new University of Leicester study reveals that screening people who are at risk of developing diabetes could be a cost-effective health policy and improve the lives of patients.

Their study, funded jointly by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Medical Research Council (MRC) as part of an interdisciplinary research initiative in the social and medical sciences, was published in the British Medical Journal as an online first article on bmj.com

The study found that screening people at risk, for either impaired glucose tolerance (a precursor for diabetes) or Type 2 diabetes mellitus, and applying interventions to delay progression to diabetes or providing early treatment of diabetes, was potentially a cost-effective policy for the UK when compared to a strategy of no screening.

Professor Keith Abrams, Professor Kamlesh Khunti and Ms Clare Gillies, of the Department of Health Sciences at the University of Leicester, led the research which they said was timely in view of the recent announcement by the Department of Health for a vascular risk screening programme.

Professor Abrams said: this work highlights the potential benefits of the introduction of a screening policy to identify individuals with impaired glucose tolerance and type 2 diabetes mellitus in the UK.