Can Waist-to-Height Ratio and Health Literacy Be Used in Primary Care for Prioritizing Further Assessment of People at T2DM Risk?

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  • Elín Arnardóttir
  • Árún K. Sigurðardóttir
  • Marit Graue
  • Beate Christin Hope Kolltveit
  • Skinner, Timothy

Background: To identify people at risk of type 2 diabetes. Primary health care needs efficient and noninvasive screening tools to detect individuals in need of follow-up to promote health and well-being. Previous research has shown people with lower levels of health literacy and/or well-being scores are vulnerable but may benefit from intervention and follow-up care. Aims: This cross-sectional study, aimed to identify people at risk for type 2 diabetes by comparing the Finnish Diabetes Risk instrument with the waist-to-height ratio. Further, the difference was examined in health literacy and well-being scale scores in the countryside versus town areas, respectively. Results: In total, 220, aged 18–75 years, participated. Thereof, 13.2% displayed biomarkers at prediabetes level of HbA1c (39–47 mmol/mol); none had undiagnosed diabetes. Of the participants, 73% were overweight or obese. Waist-to-height ratio demonstrated 93.1% of the prediabetes group at moderate to high health risk and 64.4% of the normal group, with an area under the curve of 0.759, sensitivity of 93.3%, and specificity of 63.1%. Residency did not influence prediabetes prevalence, health literacy, or well-being. Conclusion: Waist-to-height ratio and the Finnish Diabetes Risk instrument may be suitable for identifying who need further tests and follow-up care for health promotion in primary care.

Original languageEnglish
Article number6606
JournalInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Volume20
Issue number16
Number of pages14
ISSN1661-7827
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research was funded by the University of Akureyri research fund, Grant number R2003, R2223, the Akureyri Hospital research fund S193, and the Icelandic Nursing association scientific research fund B196. https://search.crossref.org/funding (accessed on 15 June 2023).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 by the authors.

    Research areas

  • countryside/town, prediabetes, screening, type 2 diabetes, well-being

ID: 384730987