Investigating the Significance of Glycosylated Hemoglobin A1C (HbA1C) Test in the Diagnosis and Management of Diabetic Individuals.

Abstract

Background: Since the 1980s, Glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) has been used as the "gold standard" for glycemic control and as a predictor of diabetes complications. HbA1c has become a solid biomarker for diagnosis and prediction of diabetes, because of the meaningful information offered by a single HbA1c test. It is also helpful in the treatment of pre-diabetes and other kinds of diabetes. Objective: To reveal sensitivity of HbA1c in contrast to other diabetes diagnostic tests, to report the performance, effectiveness and validity of HbA1c test in the diagnosing and monitoring diabetes. To find out the awareness rate of significance of HbA1c test in diabetic monitoring. Material & Methodology: A cross-sectional research was conducted through a random sample approach, during the months of September and December of 2021. A sample size of 40 patients and health professionals including technologist and Doctor were taken. The data was gathered through a pre-validated research questionnaire among patients and health workers in major hospitals of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Data was analyzed through Statistical Package for the Social Science(SPSS) software version 22. Result: The results found that 85% patients are agree with the significance of HbA1c test in diabetic monitoring while 15% patients are disagreeing with the significance of HbA1c test in diabetic monitoring. The results also reveal that 47% health professional feel that HbA1c test has better diagnostic accuracy than other diabetes diagnostic tests, 22% believe it is more dependable than other glucose tests, and 30% believe it is successful in diabetes mellitus prognosis. Conclusion: It was determined that in assessing and managing diabetes mellitus HbA1c test is considered one of the significant diagnostic test. It has the capacity to recall the previous three months' cumulative history of Glycosylated hemoglobin. The accuracy, sensitivity and reliability of HbA1c test is very high and clear in contrast to other blood glucose diagnostic tests. HbA1c test is more accurate than both a fasting glucose test and random glucose test. Moreover, HbA1c test does not need any fasting it perform any time.