Your 60-Second Diabetes Risk Score
Four questions, no blood test. This is the Indian Diabetes Risk Score (IDRS) — built and validated for Indian bodies by the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation, Chennai — the same screening arithmetic used in Indian community studies, put where your family can reach it.
How the score works — every number, in the open
Nothing here is hidden arithmetic. Your four answers carry the points below; the total out of 100 is your score. That transparency is the point — this is a published medical screening instrument, not a marketing quiz.
| Factor | Answer | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Your age | Under 35 | 0 |
| 35 to 49 | 20 | |
| 50 or above | 30 | |
| Your waist, measured at the navel | Below 80 cm (women) · below 90 cm (men) | 0 |
| 80–89 cm (women) · 90–99 cm (men) | 10 | |
| 90 cm or more (women) · 100 cm or more (men) | 20 | |
| Your usual physical activity | Vigorous exercise, or hard physical work daily | 0 |
| Moderate exercise, or moderately active work | 10 | |
| Mild exercise — the occasional walk | 20 | |
| No exercise and mostly seated work | 30 | |
| Diabetes in your parents | Neither parent | 0 |
| One parent | 10 | |
| Both parents | 20 |
Below 30 — lower risk. 30 to 50 — moderate. 60 and above — high risk, where studies find roughly three in four cases of undiagnosed diabetes. A high score is a reason to test, never a verdict: the score cannot see your blood, and plenty of high scorers test completely normal — which is precisely the good news worth having in writing.
What to do with your band
Whatever the band, the next step is the same instrument-grade one: a fasting sugar or HbA1c test — high scorers soon, moderate scorers for a baseline, low scorers on an unhurried yearly rhythm. If the result comes back in the borderline band, that is not bad news arriving — it is the best moment you will ever get, and the reversal work has Indian trial evidence behind it. If diabetes runs in your family, the family-history page explains what the inheritance numbers really mean — and why your waist question just mattered more than your weight is on the thin-fat Indian page.
Frequently asked questions
No. The score measures risk, not blood sugar. A high score means testing is strongly worth doing; a low score means your profile is favourable today. Only a blood test — fasting sugar or HbA1c — can say whether diabetes or borderline sugar is actually present, and one test settles it either way.
The Indian Diabetes Risk Score was developed by the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation in Chennai from the CURES population study and has been validated on national samples. It uses four facts — age, waist, activity, family history — because those four, in Indian bodies specifically, predict a large share of undiagnosed diabetes without a needle.
Indian diabetes risk tracks belly fat more closely than body weight — people of normal weight with a rising waistline carry real risk, which is why the score asks for centimetres at the navel and never asks your weight. The thin-fat Indian pattern is real, common, and invisible on a weighing scale.
Unhurried but not postponed: book a fasting sugar or HbA1c test within the next few weeks, not the next few years. High scorers who test early usually find either nothing — good — or a borderline number at the stage where studies show lifestyle change prevents most progression. What wastes the score is ignoring it.
This score is a screening aid, not a diagnosis or a consultation. It stores nothing and sends nothing — the arithmetic runs on your phone. For any symptom or concern, see a doctor; information on this site supports, and never replaces, an in-person medical consultation.