A method for the epidemiologic study of early diabetes.

A diabetic survey was conducted among 4048 subjects well enough to report for work, using a questionnaire covering past, present, family and obstetric history, and a capillary blood glucose determination at least 1(1/2) hours after eating. A "positive screen" was obtained in 267 individuals, in 67 on the basis of elevated blood glucose value alone, in 179 on the basis of questionnaire responses alone, and in 21 by both criteria. Glucose tolerance tests were performed on 130 subjects (49% of eligible individuals) and yielded diabetic curves in 18, 6 and 33% respectively for the three categories of positive screening tests.It is suggested that the magnitude of the group with positive history only is such that future natural history studies must take this subsample into consideration.