Adapting Diabetes Risk Scores for Jordan

Abstract

Background Diabetes risk score can be used as a simple non-invasive screening tool for identifying people with high risk of diabetes. This study aimed to assess the predictive power of various risk-scoring systems to predict pre-diabetes and diabetes in Jordanian adults. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted among people attending 54 primary health care centers distributed throughout the 12 governorates of Jordan. Diabetes risk scores using the American Diabetes Association risk score, Canadian risk score, Finland risk score (FINDRISC), British Risk score, German and Australian risk score were calculated for each patient. Fasting blood sugar (FBS) was measured for all participants. Results This study included 392 participants: 231 patients with normal fasting blood sugar (FBG), 101 patients with pre-diabetes and 60 patients with type 2 diabetes. The FINDRISC, British, and Australian risk scores were strongly inter-correlated and weakly correlated with other systems’ risk scores. Moreover, they correlated moderately and significantly with FBS. In contrast, other systems risk scores were associated weekly with FBS. Based on receiving operating characteristics (ROC) analysis and multivariate logistic regression, the FINDRISC risk score was superior to other risk scores to predict high FBS and identify pre-diabetes and diabetes. Conclusion FINDRISC risk score performed the best compared to other risk scores for predicting pre-diabetes, diabetes, and absence of diabetes. We recommend using the FINDRISC risk score assessment in Jordan.