Prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular risk factors in Hong Kong professional drivers.

Aims: To investigate the prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes mellitus (DM) and cardiovascular risk factors among professional drivers in Hong Kong.

Methods: Chinese professional drivers with no history of DM were invited to complete a questionnaire on their health status, followed by taking their body measurements, fasting blood glucose (FG) and lipids. 75g OGTT were performed when FG≥5.6 to <7.0mmol/L.

Results: Of these 3376 drivers (male 92.6%, mean age 50.9±7.6 years), the prevalence of undiagnosed DM, prediabetes, and metabolic syndrome was 8.1% (272/3376, 95% CI 7.1-9.0%), 10.0% (337/3376, 95% CI 9.0-11.0%) and 26.8% (904/3376, 95% CI 25.3-28.3%) respectively, while the corresponding WHO Standard Population age-standardized prevalence was 7.8%, 9.0% and 24.7% respectively. Many of them were obese (51.2%), had hypertension (57.0%) and high cholesterol (58.7%), and a third had hypertriglyceridaemia (34.9%) and low HDL-cholesterol (29.3%). Their median working hours were 60.0 (IQR 14)h. Majority had exercise <1h/week (56.0%) and ate out ≥6times/week (54.9%).

Conclusions: Hong Kong professional drivers have higher prevalence of undiagnosed DM, cardiovascular risk factors and metabolic syndrome than the general population. Therefore, health care measures targeting against them should be taken to prevent and detect DM and cardiovascular diseases.