Who Should Get Tested, and How Often
Reviewed by CDE Mehandi Sharma · Updated
Testing is recommended if you have symptoms — but also if you have risk factors and feel perfectly well, which is the more common situation.
The usual reasons to be tested are being 35 or older, carrying extra weight, having a parent or sibling with diabetes, being physically inactive, having had gestational diabetes, or having a condition such as PCOS or sleep apnoea. Belonging to a higher-risk ethnic group is itself a reason, and that includes South Asians.
How often depends on the result. If your test is normal, every three years is the general guidance. If you are told you have prediabetes, it becomes yearly, because that is the stage where things can still change direction.
Two things shift this earlier if you are Indian. Diabetes tends to appear roughly a decade sooner than in white Europeans, and it appears at a lower body weight — India uses its own cut-offs, treating a BMI of 23 as overweight rather than 25.
So do not use a normal-looking BMI as a reason to skip a test, and do not wait until 35 if diabetes runs in your family. Ask for a fasting glucose or HbA1c at your next check-up.