Hemoglobin A1C Predicts Diabetes

Boy, does it predict diabetes.

A study appearing in the August issue of the American Journal of Medicine found that women, aged 45 or older, whose HbA1c was >7.0%, and who did not have diabetes, had an 81 times greater risk of being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in the following 10 years, than women whose HbA1c was 5.0% or less.¹

Participants were 26,563 women who took part in the Women's Health Study (WHS). They were followed for median of 10.1 years.

Findings

The risk for diabetes increased as HbA1c levels increased:

For women whose HbA1c was:

• <5.0%, there was no greater risk.
  
• 5.0% to 5.4%, the risk was 2.9 times greater.
  
• 5.5% to 5.9%, the risk was 12.1 times greater.
  
• 6.0% to 6.4%, the risk was 29.3 times greater.
  
• 6.5% to 6.9%, the risk was 28.2 times greater.
  
• >7.0%, the risk was 81.2 times greater.

These researchers also investigated whether HbA1c levels in non-diabetic women could predict cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the following 10 years. They found that HbA1c did not predict CVD.

________¹ Hemoglobin A1c Predicts Diabetes but Not Cardiovascular Disease in Nondiabetic Women