Screening For Diabetes At Normal BMI’s Could Cut Racial Disparities

In August 2021, the US Preventive Services Task Force lowered the recommended age for Type 2 Diabetes screening from 40 to 35 years among people with a BMI of 25 kg/m2 or greater.

Unfortunately, diabetes is occurring at a higher rate and at younger ages in minority populations. These are also happening at lower BMIs. Even with BMI of 25 or below, rates are 2-4 times higher among Asian, Black and Hispanic Americans than among whites. It is speculated that the BMI cutoffs for these groups should be lowered to 18.5 kg/m2 for Hispanic and Black Americans and 20 kg/m2 for Asian Americans.

Dr. Aggarwal, senior resident physician in internal medicine at Harvard Medical School, Boston states that if the cut off stays at BMI of 25 mg/m2 or higher, then the equivalent ages should drop to for Asian, Black and Hispanic Americans would be 23, 21, and 25 years respectively compared with 35 years for White Americans.