New research from the University of Leicester’s Diabetes Research Unit suggests that a novel NHS Health Check programme may uncover up to 440,000 additional people with diabetes, heart or kidney disease per year.
The study, Joint Prevalence of Diabetes, Impaired Glucose Regulation, Cardiovascular Disease Risk and Chronic Kidney Disease in South Asians and White Europeans, outlines the high numbers of people from the general population who have diabetes, chronic kidney disease, or are at increased risk of developing diabetes or cardiovascular disease.
Originally introduced in 2009, the “MOT-style” health programme aims to identify such conditions in people aged 40 to 74 years of age. Leicester researchers believe at least 158,000 new cases of diabetes or kidney disease will be detected, compared to previous estimates of 20,000 from the Department of Health.
The workload of GP surgeries may become significantly greater with the rising numbers of people requiring healthcare, increasing the potential benefit and impact of the programme.
The NHS aims to introduce the programme across the UK over the next 5 years. Kamlesh Khunti, Professor of Primary Care Diabetes and Vascular Medicine and study lead said: “This study shows that a high proportion of people attending for the NHS Health Check Programme will have diabetes or chronic kidney disease or be at high risk of diabetes or cardiovascular disease.
“Overall this will lead to better prevention and management of these people with the potential to improve longer-term outcomes. However, general practices implementing the programmes in their surgeries have already noticed an enormous increase in workload as a result of the NHS Health Check Programme.”
The research can be downloaded from the open-access journal, PLOS ONE, here: http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0055580
