---
name: diabetes-assessment
description: 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.
---

# Diabetes 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](https://github.com/FormExamples/form-examples/tree/main/forms/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.