HbA1c (pre-diabetes) Blood Test

Prediabetes is the stage before type 2 diabetes is diagnosed. During pre-diabetes, your blood glucose levels are increased above normal but are not high enough for a type 2 diabetes diagnosis. Therefore, it is the critical period before diabetes is diagnosed and, if spotted, may be improved with simple changes to your lifestyle.

Prediabetes is often used to describe two conditions. Impaired fasting glucose (IFT), when your blood glucose levels are increased after a period of fasting, or impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) where your blood sugar levels are increased beyond normal after eating.

It is not an uncommon condition either, up to 7 million people in the UK are believed to be prediabetic.

An HbA1c test is used to test for prediabetes or type 2 diabetes in adults. Unlike other tests, it gives you an average blood glucose reading over a period of up to three months rather than at the time of testing. It is often considered the gold standard in diabetes testing.

An HbA1c blood test is the gold standard for diagnosing diabetes type 2. It gives an average measure of your blood glucose levels over the last 2-3 months.

For people who do not have type 2 diabetes, a normal HbA1c level is between 20-42mmol/mol.

In the UK, 4.7 million people have diabetes and this is expected to rise to 5.5 million within the next decade. 90% of people who have had a diagnosis have type 2 diabetes whereas type 1 accounts for around 8%.

Yet the actual figure could be higher because there is an estimated one million people living with type 2 diabetes in the UK who haven’t been diagnosed. The prevalence of type 2 diabetes is a problem, not least because it costs the NHS a staggering £173 million per week.

The increase in obesity is largely to blame for the rise in type 2 diabetes cases. In fact, it is the biggest risk factor for the development of the condition. Yet, by taking control of your own health and understand what’s really going on inside you, you can take positive action to lower your risk by making changes to your lifestyle.

Several factors can contribute to an increase in HbA1c levels such as obesity or being overweight, lack of exercise, an unhealthy diet, diabetes, stress and even some medications.

There are several things you can do to help lower your HbA1c level such as eat a healthier diet consisting of low glycaemic index foods, exercise regularly, reduce stress and lose weight are just a few.

Use our at home HbA1c blood test to monitor and check your HbA1c levels.

If you order your test before midday on a Monday to Friday then your kit will be dispatched the same day.

All our kits are sent out via Royal Mail Tracked24, so it should be with you within 1-2 working days.

We have strict processes in place to ensure the protection of your data. Following GDPR the company also operates under tight legal rules about the sharing of data which ensures that data is only shared if it is crucial to the delivery of our service. For example, our doctors see customer results at the time of review, however, after review, access to results is withdrawn.

Learn more about your data security.

Yes. We offer two options if you do not want to do our finger prick test. The first is a home appointment where a nurse comes to your home to take a blood sample. The second is to visit a Phlebotomy clinic near you that offers a blood sample service.

A blood sample will be taken from your vein and we will provide you with everything you need to give to the nurse to allow them to take the sample.

The nurse will give you the blood sample to return to us using the pre-paid envelope provided.

We have a team of doctors and nurses who look at all results and will comment on any results that are outside of the normal range for your age.

Yes, you can download your results from your health dashboard as a PDF to share with your GP.

Learn how to export your results.