Evaluation of Risk for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in 1st Degree Relatives Using Indian Diabetes Risk Score (IDRS)

Diabetes Mellitus (DM) refers to a group of common metabolic disorders that share the phenotype of hyperglycaemia. The rising prevalence of type 2 DM is closely associated with industrialisation and socio economic development. 50% of the diabetic patients in India remain unaware of their diabetic status, which increases the risk of development of diabetic complications. We have used IDRS (Table 1) which is simple, safe and inexpensive questionnaire consisting of four simple parameters i.e., age, obesity status, exercise status, and family history of type 2 DM. It was observed that 44.23%, 48.57% and 7.20% subject were in High, Moderate, and Low risk group, respectively for developing type 2 DM. This simple and cost effective IDRS could thus serve as a tool for a primary care physician or a health worker to identify at risk individuals for both diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.