Employer-sponsored laboratory testing identified previously undiagnosed medical conditions

Kaufman HW. PLoS One. 2011;doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0028201.

Among a group of more than 52,000 people, 36% were diagnosed with newly identified hyperlipidemia, diabetes and/or chronic kidney disease during employer-sponsored laboratory testing as part of health risk assessments, according to a new study conducted by researchers at Quest Diagnostics.

The researchers conducted a cross-sectional analysis of health risk assessment laboratory results on adult employees and their eligible spouses or domestic partners. The study focused on hyperlipidemia, diabetes and CKD.

“These medical conditions were selected because of their high prevalence in the United States population and the benefit of effective intervention associated with early detection,” the researchers wrote.

Twenty-four percent of the 52,250 people self-identified as having one or more of these medical conditions: 21.1% identified as having hyperlipidemia, 4.7% identified as having diabetes and 0.7% identified as having CKD.

Overall, 36% had laboratory evidence of at least one medical condition newly identified: 30.7% had laboratory evidence of hyperlipidemia, 1.9% had laboratory evidence of diabetes and 5.5% had laboratory evidence of CKD.

Among all participants with laboratory evidence of hyperlipidemia, 59% were newly identified through the health risk assessment. For diabetes, 28% of those with laboratory evidence of the disease were newly identified. For CKD, 89% of those with laboratory evidence of the disease were newly identified.

Men were more likely to have at least one newly identified condition. Lower levels of educational achievement were also associated with higher rates of newly identified disease in men. Among the youngest group of people — those aged 20 to 29 years — 24% had a newly identified risk for disease.

“Our findings show that, for a large proportion of working-age adults, health care access alone does not guarantee detection of risk factors for common chronic health conditions,” the researchers wrote. The availability of health risk assessment with laboratory tests serves an important role in addressing this shortcoming. By identifying such opportunities early, employer-sponsored laboratory testing may slow or prevent the progression of common medical conditions.”

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