Objective: To determine the prevalence of diabetes mellitus and IGT in the Funagata area of Japan.
Research design and methods: The total eligible subjects was 1163, all were > or = 45 yr of age, and 52 were known diabetic patients. Data collected included body height, weight, and answers to medical questionnaires. A 75-g OGTT was done in the morning. WHO criteria were used to classify the current diabetes status of study participants.
Results: Of the 1111 scheduled for the OGTT, 868 took the test; the participation rate was 77.8%. The prevalence of diabetes was 10.5 and 12.9%, and the prevalence of IGT was 14.7 and 18.0% for men and women, respectively. The prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes (4.9%) was almost equal to that of previously diagnosed diabetes (4.5%).
Conclusions: The prevalence of diabetes in the Funagata area was two to four times higher than that of previous reports in Japan, in which many investigators used a urinary glucose test as a preliminary test. This difference is attributed to the method of determining the prevalence of diabetes.