There are several kinds of diabetes, and getting the right diagnosis from the start is vital to ensure people get the most effective treatment:
- People with Type 1 diabetes rapidly lose their own insulin (the hormone needed to control their blood sugar levels) so need treatment with insulin.
- People with Type 2 diabetes continue to make their own insulin but it does not work so well, so they tend to be treated by diet/lifestyle changes or tablets that aim to make the insulin they have more effective. While some need insulin alongside tablets to control blood glucose, the type of insulin treatment they need is very different from type 1 diabetes.
- People with genetic forms of diabetes (called MODY) are best treated according to the specific genetic cause e.g. one type can be treated with a particular tablet, and one is mild and needs no treatment at all.
Getting the correct diagnosis is important to make sure that the person with diabetes receives the right treatment. However, features of different types of diabetes overlap therefore diagnosing what type of diabetes someone has can be difficult, and it is estimated that for Type 1 and Type 2, about 7-15% of patients may initially be given the wrong diagnosis. For individuals with MODY, the misdiagnosis rates are much higher, with 77% of people with MODY being told they have Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes.
To improve this, we have developed and tested two online calculators which can be used to help clinicians classify diabetes:
We are now working with GP practices to test run these calculators in their computer systems. The aim of this work is to explore how they can be used to help GPs make the correct diagnosis of diabetes type.
