NDSP 09: Risk Assessment of Pakistani Individual for Diabetes (RAPID) – Findings from Second National Diabetes Survey of Pakistan (NDSP) 2016–2017

OBJECTIVE: To elucidate the effectiveness of Risk Assessment of Pakistani individuals with diabetes (RAPID) tool in epidemiological and population-based second National Diabetes Survey of Pakistan (NDSP) 2016–2017 for identifying risk of developing type 2 diabetes. METHODOLOGY: This observational study was a sub-analysis of the second National Diabetes Survey of Pakistan (NDSP) 2016–2017 conducted from February 2016 to August 2017 in all four provinces of Pakistan. Ethical approval was obtained from National Bioethics Committee Pakistan. RAPID score, a validated and published scoring scale to assess risk of diabetes, originally developed from community-based surveys was used. The risk score is assessed by parameters namely: age, waist circumference, and positive family history of diabetes. Subjects with score greater ≥4 were considered at risk of diabetes. RESULTS: A total of 4904 individuals were assessed (2205 males and 2699 females). Mean age of participants was 41.8±14.2 years. Positive family history of diabetes was seen in 1379 (28.1%) people. According to RAPID score 1268 (25.9%) individuals scored ≥4 and were at risk of diabetes. OGTT status of people at risk of diabetes according to RAPID score showed that 18.1% people with diabetes and 29.2% were prediabetic. Whereas, OGTT status of people not at risk of diabetes showed that only 7.6% people with diabetes, 20% were prediabetic. CONCLUSION: A simple diabetes risk score can be used for identification of high-risk individuals for diabetes so that timely intervention can be implemented. Community-based awareness programs are needed to educate people regarding healthy lifestyle in order to reduce risk of diabetes.