[Age and sex variations of HbA(1C) in a French population without known diabetes aged 6 to 79 years].

HbA(1C) is being used for screening and diagnosing diabetes. We determined mean values of HbA(1C) according to age and sex in a large population without known diabetes, in a wide age range 6-79  years. 5,138 men and women without known diabetes aged 6-79  years participated in a routine health examination provided by their medical insurance. HbA(1C) was assessed on an HPLC analyzer aligned with a DCCT method. HbA(1C) was approximately normally distributed in both men and women. Mean (SD) HbA(1C) were, for men vs women, in percentages 5.3 (0.4) vs 5.2 (0.3), in mmol/mol 34 (5) vs 34 (4) and in estimated blood glucose in mmol/L 5.83 (0.67) vs 5.75 (0.53). HbA(1C) increased with age by 0.08% every 10  years and this was attenuated to a 0.04% increase after adjustment on fasting plasma glucose. Between 15 and 49  years, women had lower values than men (p < 0.0001), but no sex differences were observed before and after this age range. In our population, 0.6% had HbA(1C) greater or equal to 6.5% and 88% (96% of men and 73% of women) of them had fasting plasma glucose greater or equal to 6,1 mmol/L. Threshold of 6.0% selected 2.8% of our population.