Position Statement on the Appropriateness and Significance of Adding the Glycated Hemoglobin Test to the National Health Examination

The recent increase in the number of people with diabetes and the high incidence of complications carry a significant socioeconomic burden in addition to the disease burden and impact on personal health. Therefore, the Korean Diabetes Association and the Korean government have been making efforts to prevent the progression from pre-diabetes to diabetes through screening tests and to reduce diabetes complications and associated mortality in diabetic patients. Several studies in Korea have shown that glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) provides complementary information to fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and improves clinical utility for diabetes screening. We hope that this consensus meeting will serve as an opportunity to identify additional diabetic patients who have not been diagnosed through a combination of FPG and HbA1c during a medical check-up. Our study is aimed to significantly reduce the lead time between diabetes onset and clinical diagnosis and initiation of diabetes treatment.