Preventive task force issues new diabetes recommendation
A new draft recommendation on diabetes screenings posted by the U.S. Preventive
Services Task Force (USPSTF) could change the way health care professionals tackle
the debilitating disease going forward.
“Optometrists should ask all of their patients with any risk factors…if they have been
screened for diabetes and prediabetes.”
Posted on Oct. 6, the USPSTF recommendation calls for providers to screen adults 45
years of age and older—and those at increased risk for type 2 diabetes—with a blood glu-
cose test to detect diabetes or prediabetes earlier in an effort to mitigate the disease that
already affects approximately 8.3 percent of American adults.
Implementation of the screening guideline could help identify an estimated 86 million
adults at risk for diabetes and another 8 million adults with un-diagnosed diabetes,
according to the Diabetes Advocacy AllianceTM (DAA).
Courtesy of the American Academy of Optometry (AOA) News October 2014.
