The utility of a single glucometer measurement of fasting capillary blood glucose in the prevalence determination of diabetes mellitus in an urban adult Palestinian population

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
This paper aims to evaluate the utility of a single glucometer fasting capillary blood glucose (FCBG) measurement in determining the prevalence of diabetes mellitus in a homogeneous adult population. FCBG measurements were compared with results of the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) in 445 subjects aged 30-65 years in an urban cross-sectional study in Old Ramallah. Prevalence of diabetes, sensitivity, specificity and predictive values were calculated at different cut-off levels of FCBG, using OGTT as the reference. The prevalence of OGTT-diagnosed diabetes was 2.7%, while it varied considerably using different cut-off levels of FCBG. The sensitivity of a single glucometer (Exac Tech II) measurement of FCBG at the cut-off level of 6.7 mmol 1(-1) was 33.3%, with a specificity of 98.8%. Using the cut-off level of 6.1 mmol 1(-1) as suggested by the 1998 provisional report of a WHO consultation, the sensitivity increased to 41.7%. At a cut-off level of 5.6 mmol 1(-1), a sensitivity of 66.6% was reached, but the specificity decreased slightly. It can be concluded that a single glucometer measurement of FCBG in an adult population is not useful in determining the prevalence of diabetes mellitus.