Diabetes risk assessment in a family health unit

Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus is considered to be the chronic non-communicable disease whose prevalence has increased the most, and is considered by the World Health Organization to be one of the epidemics of the 21st century. It is one of the diseases with the greatest socio-economic impact on public health systems, both in developed and developing countries.It is estimated that more than one million people in Portugal have diabetes.With the general aim of assessing the risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus over a 10-year period, a descriptive-correlational, cross-sectional study was carried out on a probabilistic, simple random sample of 341 participants enrolled in a Family Health Unit, aged between 45 and 54, 54.3% female and 45.7% male. After obtaining authorization and informed consent, data was collected through individual interviews. The Finnish Diabetes Risk Score (FINDRISC) and the Health Locus-of-Control Scale were used.