Research

Adherence

The method of diagnosing diabetes significantly impacts the observed prevalence in PCOS, with self-report or administrative records doubling the odds ratio compared to prospective blood-based techniques.

If you are looking at statistics about PCOS and diabetes, be careful about how 'diabetes' was defined. Studies using blood tests (OGTT) find lower rates than those using medical records, because many women with PCOS are undiagnosed. This highlights the need for active screening.

ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
Studies that diagnosed T2DM prospectively by a blood-based technique had a 2.4-fold increased prevalence compared to a 4.7-fold increased prevalence among studies that identified diabetes by self-report/by review of medical or administrative records.
Nadira Sultana Kakoly et al. · Human Reproduction Update · 2018

Why this rating

Observational difference in study design quality/methodology within a meta-analysis.

Source

Ethnicity, obesity and the prevalence of impaired glucose tolerance and type 2 diabetes in PCOS: a systematic review and meta-regression

Nadira Sultana Kakoly et al. · Human Reproduction Update · 2018

DOI 10.1093/humupd/dmy007

Meta-analysis · 40 studiesCited 375×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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