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Importance of HbA1c Test

Do you regularly measure your fasting and after meal blood sugar to keep a check on your diabetes? Think that is enough? Not actually! Though the fasting and post meal tracking of blood glucose is important, these tests can only check your blood sugar at a certain point of time. Their results might vary depending on what you had eaten over the last night or in the previous meal. However, the HbA1c test looks at the 3-month data and cannot be biased.

For persons having diabetes, HbA1c numbers give a fair idea of how controlled their diabetes is. As per scientific evidence, having a smaller HbA1c number means lesser risk of developing complications due to diabetes. Raised HbA1c value has also been regarded as an independent risk factor for heart disease and stroke in people with or without diabetes.

Why is the HbA1c test done?

The HbA1c test is used for diagnosis as well as monitoring purposes. Your doctor suggests an HbA1c test to see whether your diabetes is controlled or not. Pre-diabetics, people having borderline diabetes, are also advised to get tested to check how stable their blood sugar levels are.

Frequency of getting tested
In general, people having diabetes and pre-diabetes should get their HbA1c tested every 3 months. If you are healthy but have a family history of diabetes or think your lifestyle makes you prone to develop diabetes, you should get an HbA1c test done every 6 months. You can consult a doctor on how frequently you should take a test for your health condition.

HbA1c Results

The results of the A1c test are presented as a percentage. The test result shows the amount of hemoglobin that glucose has bound to in your blood.

For diagnostic purposes, the test results may be as follows:

• Normal/ Healthy: Below 5.7%
• Pre-diabetes: 5.7–6.4%
• Diabetes: 6.5% or more

There are certain factors and some medical conditions that can change the HbA1c result slightly and even lead to a higher reading. Some conditions that can cause a false A1c number include:

• Liver disease
• Kidney disease
• Recent blood loss or transfusion
• Low iron levels

HbA1c Target levels

A healthy person who does not have diabetes should target for an HbA1c score below 5.7 percent.

If a person has an HbA1c score of 6.5 percent or higher, it’s likely that he /she has diabetes. During treatment for diabetes, different people will have different targets, based on factors such as their age and medicines they are taking. In general, diabetics might be asked to keep their HbA1c result below 7 percent. Older adults having diabetes and diabetics who might also be at risk of low sugar levels (hypoglycemia), can be recommended an HbA1c number of around 8%.

Conclusion

The HbA1c is an accurate and easy-to-administer test with on-the-spot results availability and can be an effective tool in establishing the diagnosis of diabetes, especially in low- and middle-income countries and hard-to-reach populations. Even though HbA1c has been endorsed for diagnosis of diabetes, in most of the countries worldwide, some testing strategies and cutoff ranges are still being debated. However, combination of FGT and HbA1c significantly enhances the diagnostic accuracy of these individual tests. The prognostic potential of HbA1c lies in its unique ability of assessing retrospective glycemic control as well as predicting the lipid profile in diabetic patients. As the epidemic of diabetes continues to grow worldwide, HbA1c test may continue to be implemented as part of the diagnostic and prognostic tool, leading to better patient care and successful clinical outcomes.