OBJECTIVE

To analyze the prevalence of prediabetes and the real-world practice of prescribing drug therapy to patients with prediabetes.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The results of 1024 visits to healthcare institutions of the network Russian Railways Medicine for primary healthcare were reviewed. The visits included a questionnaire, examination, and interviewing of patients, as well as glycosylated hemoglobin and fasting plasma glucose tests.

RESULTS

Of the 210 patients with a FINDRISK score of 12 or more, 20% were diagnosed with prediabetes, and laboratory markers of prediabetes were noted in 14.3%. However, only 37.0% of patients with laboratory markers of prediabetes were diagnosed with prediabetes. Treatment was prescribed for 10% of patients diagnosed with prediabetes, as determined by physicians. The data obtained indicate non-compliance with algorithms for diagnosing prediabetes and type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2) based on laboratory data (fasting plasma glucose and glycated hemoglobin) by primary care physicians. There is a low proportion of patients with laboratory-confirmed diagnoses of DM2 and prediabetes who are prescribed drug therapy, also indicating a low awareness of medical staff regarding the need to prescribe metformin for DM2 prevention.

CONCLUSION

The data obtained cannot be fully assessed as the results of an epidemiological study due to the social, clinical, and demographic characteristics of patients seeking medical attention at the network Russian Railways Medicine, the non-continuous nature of the study, as well as the incorrectness of data entry into the system. Therefore, a wide-scale pharmacoepidemiological study is needed.