Diabetes test for all over-40s

EVERYONE aged 40 and over should be offered an NHS diabetes check, with millions ordered to go on strict diets by GPS, under new plans.

Recommendations from the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (Nice) say “intensive lifestyle change programmes” will be offered to those whose weight or habits jeopardise their health.

Almost five million people identified at risk of diabetes should be offered slimming and fitness classes and lifestyle coaching, with places prioritised for 1.7 million people whose blood sugar levels puts them in greatest danger. To find them, every person aged 40 and over should be offered an assessment of their health, along with millions more patients as young as 25 whose ethnic group heightens their risk. Nice said the NHS checks should be carried out in workplaces, shops and libraries, as well as in thousands of GP surgeries, pharmacies and opticians.

Almost four million adults in England have diabetes, of whom almost a million are undiagnosed. The vast majority have Type 2 diabetes, which is fuelled by unhealthy lifestyles, with two in three adults overweight or obese.

Assessments should be included in free NHS Health Checks offered every five years to those between 40 and 74, and to older patients, the guidance says. Those of South Asian, Chinese, and African-caribbean descent should be offered checks from the age of 25 because of a heightened risk, it adds. Individuals are also advised to take a self-assessment test, using the

Know Your Risk quiz on the Diabetes UK website. Tam Fry, from the National Obesity Forum, said: “Diabetes is threatening to bankrupt the NHS so we urgently have to do something about it. Referring high risk patients to slimming classes and getting them to improve their diet is crucial.”

Professor Mark Baker, director of the centre for guidelines at Nice, said: “This approach is a cost-effective way of managing an illness that currently costs the NHS around £8.8billion a year.”

By 2035, one in 10 adults in the UK is expected to have diabetes, which can lead to limb amputation, kidney disease, strokes and heart attacks.