Over 30.3 million American adults have diabetes, a chronic condition where a person’s body does not use insulin and cannot keep blood sugar at a normal level. Over time, high blood sugar can cause additional health problems, so it is important to manage diabetes through healthy eating, activity, and sometimes medication. Before developing type 2 diabetes, most people have prediabetes. Prediabetes is when an individual’s blood sugar is higher than normal, but not high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes. Nearly 84 million American adults have prediabetes, that is 1 in 3 people. And while the numbers are higher than we would hope, the good news is that prediabetes is reversible. Through healthy lifestyle changes a person can reduce their risk for type 2 diabetes and get their blood sugar back to normal. The first step in prevention is knowing your risk. To find out your risk level, take the prediabetes risk test.

Take the Test - Know Your Score

Answer these seven simple questions.

1. How old are you?

• Younger than 40 years (0 points)
• 40-49 years (1 point)
• 50-59 years (2 points)
• 60 years or older (3 points)

 2. Are you a man or a woman?

• Man (1 point)           
• Woman (0 points)

3. If you are a woman, have you ever been diagnosed with gestational diabetes?

If you scored 5 or higher:

A score of 5 or higher indicates you are at an increase risk for having prediabetes and are at a high risk for type 2 diabetes.

Only a doctor can tell you for sure if you have type 2 diabetes or prediabetes, a condition in which blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not high enough yet to be diagnosed as type 2 diabetes.

Talk to your doctor to see if additional testing is needed.

Type 2 diabetes is more common in African Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, American Indians, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Higher body weight increases diabetes risk for everyone. Asian Americans are at increased risk for type 2 diabetes at lower weights (about 15 points lower than weights in the 1 Point column).

Want to learn more about how lifestyle changes can help you prevent/reverse prediabetes visit National Diabetes Prevention Program.