Type 2 Diabetes Risk Test
Eight questions, no needles — a validated estimate of your 10-year risk.
This is the FINDRISC score, developed and validated in Finland and used internationally. It estimates your risk of developing type 2 diabetes within ten years from eight questions, without a blood test.
What the score means
FINDRISC produces a score out of 26, grouped into risk bands. A high score does not mean you have diabetes — it means your ten-year probability is elevated enough to be worth acting on now.
The value of a questionnaire like this is that it identifies people who should have their glucose measured, before symptoms give them a reason to. Type 2 diabetes develops slowly and silently, and by the time thirst and frequent urination appear, it has usually been present for years.
What each factor contributes
Age. Risk rises from 45, and again from 55 and 65.
BMI. From 25 upwards, and more steeply from 30. See the BMI calculator if you do not know yours.
Waist circumference. The strongest single anthropometric predictor, because it stands in for visceral fat — which is what actually drives insulin resistance.
Physical activity. Fewer than 30 minutes a day of movement, at work or in leisure, raises the score. Muscle is the largest site of glucose disposal in the body, and unused muscle disposes of less.
Fruit and vegetable intake. A crude proxy for overall diet quality, which is exactly what it was designed to be.
Blood pressure medication. Hypertension and insulin resistance travel together, sharing much of the same underlying mechanism.
Previous high glucose. Any glucose reading ever recorded as high — in pregnancy, during an illness, at a check-up — is a significant predictor and often forgotten.
Family history. First-degree relatives count more than second-degree, and both count.
What to do with a high score
The important point is that this is one of the few areas of medicine where prevention is thoroughly proven. Large trials — the Diabetes Prevention Program among them — showed that structured changes to diet and activity reduced progression from prediabetes to diabetes by around 58%, outperforming metformin in the same trial.
That result is not a matter of trying harder. It comes from specific, sustained changes, and having them planned rather than improvised is much of what makes them stick.
If your score is elevated, the next step is a fasting glucose and an HbA1c. Those two tests establish where you actually are, and everything else follows from that.
The limits of this test
FINDRISC was developed in a Finnish population, and although it has been validated widely, its calibration is not identical in every population. For Latin America it tends to perform reasonably, but read it as a screening prompt rather than a precise probability.
It also cannot detect type 1 diabetes, which is an autoimmune condition with a different mechanism entirely and no relationship to these risk factors.
Common questions
Does a high score mean I have diabetes?
No. It estimates the risk of developing type 2 diabetes over the next ten years. Only a blood test — fasting glucose or HbA1c — can establish whether you have it now, and a high score is a good reason to have one.
Can a high risk be reversed?
To a substantial degree, yes. Structured changes to diet and physical activity have been shown in large trials to cut progression from prediabetes to diabetes by roughly half. Age and family history do not change, but they are not the whole score.
How do I measure my waist correctly?
Standing, at the end of a normal breath out, with the tape midway between the lowest rib and the top of the hip bone — not at the narrowest point and not where your trousers sit. The tape should be snug without compressing the skin.
Further reading
Diabetes Care
Type 1, type 2 and gestational diabetes managed in English in San Borja, Lima. Dr. Claudia Michahelles — HbA1c monitoring, insulin adjustment and complication screening.
Managing Type 2 Diabetes After Moving to Peru
Keeping diabetes control steady through an international move — prescriptions, lab units, medication availability in Lima, and the specific ways that Peruvian food and altitude change the picture.
5 min readTools point you in a direction. Diagnosis happens in the consulting room.
If your result raised more questions than it answered, book an evaluation in San Borja or a video consultation from wherever you are.