Factors associated with abnormal glucose readings in a pharmacy-led community health fair using the ADA risk assessment tool

Abstract

ObjectivesThe objective of this study was to evaluate whether the American Diabetes Association (ADA) risk tool correctly identified high-risk patients with abnormal glucose readings requiring referral to a health care provider in an underserved population at a large student pharmacist–led health fair. In addition, the association of abnormal glucose readings compared with alternative ADA risk score cut point values and other collected variables was evaluated. MethodsThis was a retrospective, cross-sectional study using deidentified data from a large student pharmacist–led health fair. ResultsA total of 35 of 188 (19%) patients were considered high risk per the ADA risk tool, and 11 of those 35 (31%) had abnormal glucose results. After controlling for ADA risk score, no additional collected clinical variables were independently associated with abnormal glucose results. Although the ADA cut point associated with an abnormal glucose screening with the highest area under the curve was greater than or equal to 4, a cut point of 3 or greater resulted in a sensitivity of 91.2%. ConclusionThe optimal method to identify patients who are at risk for an abnormal glucose screening is the ADA risk tool compared with the individual components of the tool or other evaluated risk factors. We suggest using an ADA risk cut point of greater than or equal to 3 instead of greater than or equal to 5 to identify patients likely to have abnormal glucose results in the health fair setting as this would greatly increase the chance of identifying patients who would need to be referred to their primary care provider for diagnostic testing.