Sir Ganga Ram Hospital on Tuesday said the hospital, along with Motilal Nehru Medical College of Allahabad, has discovered a "simple and cost-effective screening tool" to identify people at high risk of type 2 diabetes.

"This retrospective analysis done on 1,055 patients at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital from March 2013 to September 2016 has found that bigger the thighs, less are the chances of having diabetes," the hospital said. The aim of this study was to provide an easy and inexpensive tool that could cut down the cost of investigations and reduce economic burden, it added.

The findings published in a recent edition of the Indian Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism suggests that thigh circumference can predict diabetes. "Big tummy with thin thighs is equal to high risk of diabetes and slim tummy with big thighs is equal to low risk of diabetes," it said. Diabetes is a major challenge being faced by clinicians worldwide. An estimated 415 million people suffered from the disease worldwide in 2015. A major cause of concern is the fact that almost half of these were undiagnosed.

"Mere diagnosis and treatment of diabetes will prove to be futile and uneconomical, unless we identify those at risk at an early stage. For this, we require simple and inexpensive screening tools that can be used easily, wherever and whenever, as required by clinician," said Dr S.P. Byotra, co-author of the report and Chairman, Department of Medicine, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.

"We Asian-Indians have larger tummy and thinner thighs and excess abdominal fat, making us more prone to diabetes," said Dr Atul Kakar, co-author and Senior Consultant, Department of Medicine, at the hospital. Dr Atul Gogia, another co-author and Senior Consultant, Department of Medicine, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, said: "Our study found that diabetics had significantly greater waist circumference than non-diabetics. Also, diabetics had lesser thigh circumference than non-diabetics. "We found that Waist Thigh Ratio (WTR) of 2.3 as a cut-off point as predictor of diabetes. Simply put, a person having Waist Thigh Ratio (WTR) less than 2.3 will be at low risk of diabetes and may not require further investigation."