Indian Diabetes Risk Score (IDRS)

IDRS is a four-question score from the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation (Mohan and colleagues, 2005), built from the Chennai Urban Rural Epidemiology Study. It adds points for age, waist size, physical activity and diabetes in your parents, for a total out of 100.

60 or more is high risk, 30 to 50 is moderate and under 30 is low. In the original study, a score of 60 or more picked out about 72% of people who had diabetes without knowing it.

Get a fasting blood sugar and an HbA1c. HbA1c needs no fasting; the fasting sugar needs 8 to 10 hours without food. A doctor confirms diabetes only after the tests, never from the score alone.

Indians tend to carry fat around the belly even at a normal BMI, and belly fat tracks diabetes risk more closely. That is why the waist limits are lower than Western ones: 80 cm for women and 90 cm for men.

Stand straight, breathe out and wrap the tape midway between your lowest rib and the top of your hip bone, usually just above the navel. Trouser size is often a few inches smaller than the real waist.

Yes. Age adds no points under 35, but a large waist, no exercise and diabetes in both parents can still reach the moderate or high range.