The Article in Brief

Background Although early diagnosis of diabetes can help prevent health problems from the disease, there is evidence that some health problems may develop before diabetes is diagnosed. This is the first large-scale study of how often 2 conditions occur in adults with undiagnosed diabetes: nephropathy, a form of kidney damage from high blood sugar, and peripheral neuropathy, or nerve damage from high blood sugar.

What This Study Found Among adults older than 40 years with undiagnosed diabetes, almost 25% had signs of nephropathy; more than 21% had signs of peripheral neuropathy.

Implications

• Undiagnosed diabetes is a serious public health concern.
• Health professionals may need to reconsider current approaches for detecting diabetes. Most current approaches wait for medical signs and symptoms, and by then it may be too late to prevent some hea
• The authors call for more aggressive diabetes testing based on patients’ risk for the disease. They also call on insurers to provide reimbursement for such tests.