More effective than body mass index alone, the Tool for Assessing Glucose Impairment for adolescents is a simple screening tool that identifies adolescents who may have impaired fasting glucose, according to a study published in the June issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Preventing Chronic Disease.
(HealthDay) -- More effective than body mass index (BMI) alone, the Tool for Assessing Glucose Impairment (TAG-IT) for adolescents (TAG-IT-A) is a simple screening tool that identifies adolescents who may have impaired fasting glucose, according to a study published in the June issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Preventing Chronic Disease.
The researchers found that age, gender, BMI, and resting heart rate were all important predictors of impaired fasting glucose in this population of adolescents. Compared with BMI alone, the TAG-IT-A screening tool was statistically significantly better as a predictor of impaired fasting glucose (area under the curve, 0.61 versus 0.55). In this sample, a TAG-IT-A score of 3 or higher correctly identified 50 percent and a score of 5 or higher corrected identified 76 percent of adolescents with impaired fasting glucose.
"The TAG-IT-A tool is a simple measure that uses variables that can be obtained in community settings, and it is modestly better than BMI alone in predicting risk for impaired fasting glucose," the authors write.
