Charity derides ‘pre-diabetes’ term as misleading and unhelpful
The charity, the InDependent Diabetes Trust (IDDT) has today issued an urgent position statement to highlight the need to debate the term, ‘pre-diabetes.’ This term, which has recently crept into everyday (medical) language, is causing a great deal of concern and worry to patients who are being told by health professionals that they have ‘pre-diabetes’ or ‘borderline diabetes’ without being given sufficient information.
Martin Hirst, IDDT’s newly appointed CEO commented; ‘using this term is inappropriate and meaningless. There is no such medical condition and it is not only misleading patients but it is also worrying them.’ He continued, ‘we are receiving large numbers of calls to our Helpline from people who have been ‘diagnosed’ as such, asking for advice as to what they should do next. It appears that the tests being used to determine this term could apply to a third of all adults in England - approximately 18 million people who could fit into this category!’
Dr Laurence Gerlis, (IDDT Trustee and medical advisor) added, ‘The current thought is that there is nothing to be gained from either the patient’s or doctor’s viewpoint by diagnosing ‘pre-diabetes.’ Anyone who overeats and gains weight can develop diabetes. In that sense we are all pre–diabetic! There is still the borderline state of ‘impaired glucose tolerance’ and, of course, we should continue to advise patients on diet and weight loss where appropriate, but nothing is to be gained by inventing a separate entity and treating ‘pre-diabetes.’
IDDT is concerned that this group of people have no symptoms of ill-health but are being labelled with a false medical condition which can, in itself, create a new set of problems by worrying them about their future health. Neither is there any evidence to suggest that treating people in this category with diabetes drugs has any beneficial effect, nor will it improve their risk of morbidity.
The National Institute for Health Care Excellence (NICE) has already stated that it does not believe that there should be a separate category, labelled, ‘pre-diabetes’ and the term is not recognised by the World Health Organisation either.
Given this lack of evidence and the number of people being labelled with ‘pre-diabetes,’ IDDT intends, as a top priority, to open the debate over this issue with health professionals and the Department of Health.
