Early intervention and the avoidance or delay of progression to type 2 diabetes is of enormous benefit to patients in terms of increasing life expectancy and quality of life, and potentially in economic terms for society and health-care payers.

To address the growing impact of type 2 diabetes, the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) Taskforce on Epidemiology and Prevention convened a consensus workshop in 2006. The resulting consensus paper was launched at the 2nd International Congress on Prediabetes and the Metabolic Syndrome [2] in Barcelona in April 2007 and published in the May 2007 issue of Diabetic Medicine. The primary goal of the workshop and the paper is the prevention of type 2 diabetes in both the developed and the developing world.

Further information: 

• Highlights of the IDF Consensus [3]
• Download the IDF Consensus (pdf, 258KB) [4], published in the May issue of Diabetic Medicine