Identifying employees at high risk of diabetes among the medical staff of Jaber Al-Ahmed Armed Forces Hospital in Kuwait and screening them for diabetes

Background: Diabetes mellitus is one of the top diseases leading to morbidity and mortality in Kuwait. There is often a delay in diagnosing patients with type 2 diabetes due to the long asymptomatic pre-clinical stage and complications are commonly present at diagnosis. Screening can identify diabetics and treatment can be initiated earlier to prevent complications. Screening can detect pre-diabetics who may benefit from interventions to prevent or delay progression to diabetes. Objectives: The aim of this study is to estimate the prevalence of risk factors for diabetes in healthy employees and screen those with high risk for diabetes. Method: A cross-sectional study conducted in Jaber Al-Ahmed Hospital from October to November 2012. The Finnish questionnaire for diabetes risk assessment was used to categorize participants into different risk categories for diabetes. Participants considered to be at high risk were screened for diabetes using HbA1c. Results: 647 employees participated in the study. 70.6% of the participants were overweight or obese; more than half had a high waist circumference and 23% were smokers. Kuwaiti employees tended to have more risk compared to non- Kuwaitis (P<0.001) with 27.6% of Kuwaitis belonging to the low risk group compared to 42.4% of the non-Kuwaitis. HbA1c testing showed that out of the 51 participants with high/very high risk, 6 (11.8%) were diabetics and 26 (51.0%) were pre-diabetics. Conclusion: Screening and a diabetic risk assessment for those at high risk should be part of the routine occupational health check program in the hospital.