Indian diabetic risk score screening of rural adults in Tamil Nadu

Diabetes is acknowledged as a key public health problem with the prevalence rate increasing globally and reaching epidemic proportions. It is high time that screening programs are implemented at the community level for early detection of the population, who are at risk of having diabetes mellitus. A community-based and cross-sectional study was conducted in the rural field practice area of a tertiary care hospital in Chengalpattu district, Tamil Nadu. The screening tool used to assess the risk status was the Indian diabetes risk score (IDRS) and the body mass index (BMI) of the participants was also calculated. A total of 396 formed the study population with the males constituting 47.2% of the study population. The majority were more than 50 years of age. Evaluating the risk status of study subjects using IDRS, the higher IDRS risk score was seen in 48.2% of participants, 47.2% had moderate risk, while only 3.5% had low risk. About 54.2% (n = 198) of participants were found to have a BMI within the normal range, 18.4% were underweight, 20.5% were overweight, and obesity was seen in 6.8% of the participants. A statistically significant association was found between gender and IDRS risk status, whereas no significant association was found between BMI category and IDRS risk status. Almost half of the study participants belonged to the high-risk category using IDRS screening. For the mass screening of diabetes, IDRS seems practically feasible and acceptable.