The Performance of the Finnish Diabetes Risk Score (FINDRISC) Questionaire for Screening Individuals with Undiagnosed Type 2 Diabetes and Dysglycaemia in Nigeria

Introduction: The Finnish Diabetes Risk Score (FINDRISC) questionnaire is a non-invasive, cheap, and easy to use screening tool to estimate future risk of diabetes development and detection of asymptomatic type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in other populations. This study aimed to evaluate usefulness of the FINDRISC to assessed future development of T2DM among a high-risk population.

Methods: 750 participants recruited from semi-urban communities aged 18 years and older participated in this cross-sectional study. Data on the FINDRISC and fasting plasma glucose variables were available for each participant. SPSS version 16 was used for analysis and p<0.05 was taken as statistically significant.

Results: The mean age of participants was 61.7±18.5years, 70.6% females and 8.8% were adjudged to have diabetes based on FPG. 103 (13.73%) participants had high-risk score of 15-20, which estimates that 1 in 3 participants would develop diabetes within 10 years. 4 of the participants had very high risk (>20) and all of them were adjudged to have diabetes. There was significant association between diabetes risk score and FPG (p=0.001), SBP (p=0.034) and age (p<0.001).

Conclusion: The FINDRISC seem a useful non-invasive, easy to use, self-administered and practical tool to screen for undetected diabetes and future development of diabetes among high-risk groups in this semi-urban community.