Diabetes Assessment
Use when asked to administer, score, or explain a Diabetes Assessment — a structured NICE-aligned diabetes review covering glycaemic control, complications, and cardiovascular risk — grounded in FormExamples/form-examples; related to diabetes-podiatry-assessment.
Structured diabetes review aligned with NICE NG28 (type 2) / NG17 (type 1) and the Diabetes UK 15 Healthcare Essentials, capturing diabetes history, glycaemic control, medications, complications screening, cardiovascular risk, self-care, psychological wellbeing, and foot assessment.
Scoring
Instrument: NICE Diabetes Review (HbA1c target + composite risk).
- Controlled — HbA1c at individualized target, no new complications, good self-care.
- Suboptimal — HbA1c above target or modifiable risk factors present.
- Poorly Controlled — HbA1c significantly above target or active complications identified.
What it covers
Demographics; diabetes history; glycaemic control; medications; complications screening; cardiovascular risk; self-care and lifestyle; psychological wellbeing; foot assessment; and review with a care plan.
Relationship to diabetes-podiatry-assessment
This assessment includes a foot-assessment step as one part of a broader annual review; Diabetes Podiatry Assessment is the dedicated, deeper foot-risk-stratification assessment (pulses, monofilament testing, ulcer risk banding) that a positive finding here should prompt or that's performed on its own dedicated schedule.
Common pitfalls
- Treating HbA1c as the only outcome that matters — the "Controlled/ Suboptimal/Poorly Controlled" categorization explicitly also weighs complications and self-care, not glycaemic control alone; a good HbA1c with an unaddressed complication is not "controlled."
- Individualizing the HbA1c target inconsistently — NICE recommends individualized targets (tighter for some patients, more relaxed for others, e.g. frail older adults); applying one blanket target misapplies the guidance.
- Skipping the psychological wellbeing section — diabetes distress and depression are common and affect self-management; a purely biomedical review misses a major driver of outcomes.
Learn more
- FormExamples: diabetes-assessment for the full implementation, clinical references, and worked examples.
- Diabetes Podiatry Assessment for the dedicated diabetic foot assessment.
- Endocrinology Assessment for the broader endocrine-system assessment.