Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2009 Jul 1;3(4):656-60.
doi: 10.1177/193229680900300406.

Do race and ethnicity impact hemoglobin A1c independent of glycemia?

William H Herman  1
Affiliations
Review

Do race and ethnicity impact hemoglobin A1c independent of glycemia?

William H Herman. J Diabetes Sci Technol. .

Abstract

Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) is widely used as an index of mean glycemia, a measure of risk for the development of diabetes complications, and a measure of the quality of diabetes care. Emerging literature suggests that, although HbA1c levels change little over time within persons without diabetes, they vary considerably among individuals, suggesting that factors other than glycemia may impact HbA1c. Racial and ethnic differences in HbA1c have been described that do not appear to be explained by differences in glycemia. It is imperative that the nonglycemic factors that affect HbA1c be more clearly defined. Even more important, it must be determined whether differences among individuals or groups correlate with susceptibility to complications or merely reflect variation in hemoglobin glycation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Hemoglobin A1c distribution by ethnicity in U.S. children and young adults ages 5–24 NHANES–3, 1988–1994.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Allen DW, Schroeder WA, Balog J. Observations on the chromatographic heterogeneity of normal adult and fetal human hemogloba study of the effects of crystallization and chromatography on the heterogeneity and isoleucine content. J Am Chem Soc. 1958;80(7):1628–1634.
    1. Rajbar S. An abnormal hemoglobin in red cells of diabetics. Clin Chem Acta. 1968;22(2):296–298. - PubMed
    1. Koenig RJ, Peterson CM, Kilo C, Cerami A, Williamson JR. Hemoglobin A1c as an indicator of the degree of glucose intolerance in diabetes. Diabetes. 1976;25(3):230–232. - PubMed
    1. Koenig RJ, Peterson CM, Jones RL, Saudek C, Lehrman M, Cerami A. Correlation of glucose regulation and hemoglobin A1c in diabetes mellitus. N Engl J Med. 1976;295(8):417–420. - PubMed
    1. National Glycohemoglobin Standardization Program http://www.ngsp.org/

Publication types

Substances