Pilot trial on the detection of patients with undiagnosed diabetes mellitus type 2 performed in community pharmacies in Valladolid. Environmental impact evaluation

Introduction: The complications that DM2 can develop, and the undiagnosed population (6%) highlight the importance of screening at the population level. The aim of this work is to evaluate and verify whether the professional activity performed in pharmacies is a good point to detect patients with undiagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus and to refer them for a possible diagnosis. Moreover, to evaluate the environmental impact of the actions.

Methodology: Findrisc questionnaire for patients who met the inclusion criteria and agreed to participate in the study. Basal capillary blood glucose measurement if the result was ≥15 points and referral to a physician if blood glucose was ≥110mg/dL.

Results: 44 pharmacies participated. The sample included 434 users; those with high or very high risk (Findrisc ≥15) underwent capillary basal glycemia, with a mean result of 124.51 mg/dL (SD=33.6). Out of the 89 patients referred to the physician (20.5%), the patients diagnosed with diabetes type 2 accounted for 3% of the analyzed sample.

Conclusions: The number of newly diagnosed patients (3%) reflects that the community pharmacy is a good place for diabetes detection. In addition, the study reveals pharmacists’ usefulness in their role as a health educator, since they provide guidance on healthy lifestyle habits to those patients not subject to physician referral. Furthermore, closer collaborations between physicians and pharmacists would be necessary in diabetes screening, since the return of information was low; although we can observe that in rural areas, where the relationship is close, the return rate was 85.2%.