The Validity of the American Diabetes Association’s Diabetes Risk Test in a Saudi Arabian Population

Introduction The prevalence of type 2 diabetes (T2D) is growing worldwide. This study aimed to assess the sensitivity and specificity of the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's diabetes risk test in identifying Saudi Arabian patients at risk of developing T2D. Methods We conducted a one-month cross-sectional study that included patients older than 18 years who visited primary care facilities for any health concern in Riyadh City, Saudi Arabia. We used the Arabic language version of the ADA Prediabetes Risk Test questionnaire, a validated and reliable tool, to collect data. For this study, we analyzed the data using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, version 24.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, New York). Moreover, we calculated sensitivity and specificity, positive predictive values (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), the area under the curve (AUC), and Youden’s index. Results A total of 180 participants were included in the study (121 women and 59 men; mean age = 45 years). The ADA Prediabetes Risk Test sensitivity was 78.9, specificity was 82, PPV was 32, and NPV was 76. Youden’s index was 60.9 and the AUC was 0.6. Conclusion The ADA prediabetes risk assessment tool is highly sensitive and specific for determining the disease. It is a reliable and valid tool that has not yet been implemented to a great extent in Saudi Arabia. Therefore, future work should study the tool’s effectiveness in risk assessment in additional local Saudi Arabian communities.