NBC Chicago: UI Health ER Study Finds High Prevalence of Diabetes
Monday, February 13, 2023
Emergency Medicine physician Dr. Janet Lin spoke with NBC Chicago about a recently published study by UI Health staff that found hundreds of patients seeking treatment in the Emergency Department had diabetes or prediabetes — and they did not know it.
“What’s novel about this is that we’re conducting a preventative health screening within our Emergency Department. So, most people that are coming to the Emergency Department are not coming in because they want to be screened. But we also know that diabetes is of high prevalence within our community,” said Lin, who helped implement the diabetes screenings.
- Of the patients who met criteria for screening (2,074 patients), 52.3% had an abnormal A1C result (1,085 patients). Of these patients, 69.9% were prediabetic (758 patient) and 30.1% were diabetic (327 patients, of which 62 had severe diabetes).
- Screening criteria: All patients 45 years or older; or those aged 18 to 44 years with a BMI of 25 or greater (with no history of diabetes and no recent A1C measurement on record)
Watch the segment above, and read more about the study at NBC Chicago.
