[Early detection of diabetes in visitors to a health fair according to new definition of diabetes].

Based upon epidemiological studies it is assumed that the prevalence of diabetes mellitus is approximately 8 million patients in Germany. Since a significant increase of risk for diabetes and in parallel an increase of vascular and mortality risk was observed even with slight hyperglycaemia, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the American Diabetes Association (ADA) formulated new criteria for diagnosis in 1997. One way to record endangered and asymptomatic diabetic patients is to appeal for public health checks, propagated by mass media. During a public health day in Dresden, Germany, a simple examination of the state of health was carried out, including determination of the BMI, blood pressure, and blood glucose. As a result, in this population already selected already for health orientation (n = 513; 366 women, 147 men; age: 64.5 +/- 13.6, range: 7-97) 152 subjects (110 women, 42 men) were found with hyperglycaemia (capillary blood glucose between 6.1 and 11.1 mmol/l) who should be controlled regarding their plasma glucose levels, and 3 newly detected diabetic subjects (total of diabetic patients: 23 females/15 males) were discovered 50% of the participants had a BMI of over 25 kg/m2. Our results indicate that the possibilities for preventive checkups for subjects on risk and early diagnosis of diabetes mellitus should be offered on a much broader basis for the entire population.