Global prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is about 9%. In India the prevalence is around 8.63%. The Indian diabetes risk score [IDRS] is an simple and cost effective screening tool to detect Diabetes mellitus risk at an early stage.

Objectives:

1. To assess the level of risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus among the rural population using the IDRS.

2. To find out the factors associated with the risk of developing T2DM.

Materials and methods:

It is a community based cross sectional study conducted in the Veerapandi village of Salem district. Sample size is 410 and systematic random sampling method is used to select the samples. Data was collected using the pretested structured questionnaire. Data was entered in MS Excel and analysed using SPSS Version 21.

Results:

Among 410 samples, 40% were males and 60% were females. Using IDRS 42.7% are at moderate risk,29% are at high risk and about 28.3% are at low risk for developing Diabetes Mellitus. Marital status, education, occupation, smoking, alcohol usage and obesity are factors associated (P value < 0.05) with diabetes mellitus risk. Around 12.7% belonged to obese category as per their BMI and 20.5% were hypertensives.

Conclusion:

This study reveals that 71.7% are at risk for developing diabetes mellitus risk. Stringent lifestyle modifications and timely interventions need to be implemented in order to curb this problem of Diabetes mellitus.