Overview
- Peer-reviewed research in Diabetes Care, using UK Biobank and Genes & Health data on more than 510,000 people, reports widespread G6PD deficiency in the UK.
- Prevalence estimates show about one in seven Black men and one in 63 South Asian men carry the variant linked to misleadingly low HbA1c results.
- Men with the deficiency were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes roughly four years later than peers without the variant.
- Affected men faced a 37% higher risk of diabetes-related microvascular complications, including eye, kidney, and nerve damage.
- Fewer than one in 50 carriers were clinically recognised; study authors, Diabetes UK, and NIHR figures call for routine G6PD screening or revised testing pathways, noting WHO guidance is not widely applied in the UK.