[Study on the mass-screening level of after-meal blood sugar level]

Although the blood sugar level (BS) is known to rise after a meal, it is not always easy to take blood from examinees in mass checkups, and persons with impaired glucose tolerance often have to be picked out with reference to the upper normal limit of fasting BS. In our survey of a large number of health check examinees (free of diseases under treatment), the mean (M) fasting BS + 2 standard deviations (SD) was close to 110 mg/dl, which is generally accepted as the screening level of fasting BS. When the screening level ws set at M + 2SD for each time span after a meal, the ratio of the screened was also close to that on fasting. Accordingly, the nearest round number ending either with 0 or 5 for the first digit is suggested to be of practical use for the screening level of after-meal BS. In addition, as the M + 2SD for 3 h or more after a meal was almost identical to that on fasting, the BS at the time may be regarded as that on fasting.