Screening for Type 2 Diabetes – The ADDITION Netherlands Study
To investigate whether early treatment of screening-detected diabetic patients is beneficial, the Anglo–Danish–Dutch Study of Intensive Treatment in People with Screen-Detected Diabetes in Primary Care (ADDITION) has been initiated. A total of 56,978 subjects 50–70 years of age without diabetes from 79 general practices in The Netherlands were invited to participate in a stepwise screening programme. Five hundred and eighty-six participants (1.0%) were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. The score on the initial risk questionnaire was higher if glucose metabolism was more disturbed. The yield of screening varied widely between practices. A lower yield was not associated with an appropriate practice organisation regarding diabetes care, nor with a speciality of the GP in diabetes. Opportunistic screening in general practice seems preferable to population-based screening. Intensified multifactorial treatment of patients with screening-detected type 2 diabetes in general practice reduced the cardiovascular risk factor levels significantly after just one year without worsening healthrelated quality of life. After three years of follow-up, screened participants without diabetes but with an elevated risk score had comparable cardiovascular event rates to patients with diabetes. Screened individuals without diabetes are at risk of lacking optimal control of cardiovascular risk factors.