title: Pharmacy students screening for pre-diabetes/diabetes with a validated questionnaire in community pharmacies during their experiential rotation in Alberta, Canada.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Type 2 diabetes is a major condition impacting morbidity, mortality, and health care costs in Canada. Pharmacists are very accessible and are in an ideal position to promote public health education. The primary goal of this study was to incorporate public health promotion and education into a community pharmacy experiential education rotation for fourth year pharmacy students to screen for the risk of pre-diabetes/diabetes in adults. A secondary goal was to determine the frequency of common risk factors for pre-diabetes/diabetes in adults in the community setting.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fourth year pharmacy students were invited to recruit all adults 25 years or older attending community pharmacies to complete a pre-diabetes/diabetes risk assessment questionnaire. If the participants were at risk, the participants were provided education about risk reduction for developing pre-diabetes/diabetes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 340 participants completed a risk assessment questionnaire. Over 90% of people approached agreed to complete a risk assessment questionnaire. The common risk factors were overweight (154/45%), hypertension (102/30%), taking medications for hypertension (102/30%), and having symptoms of diabetes (111/33%). The ethnic minorities have 2.56 (confidence interval = 1.48-44.1) times greater odds of having a family history of diabetes compared to non-minority subjects.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Pharmacy students are able to screen community-based patients for pre-diabetes/diabetes risks. The most common risk factors presented were overweight, hypertension, and taking medications for hypertension.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
authors.forename: Hoan Linh
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Banh
authors.affiliation: London Health Sciences Centre, London, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Sheldon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chow
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
authors.forename: Shuai
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy Practice, College of Pharmacy, University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
authors.forename: Nancy
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Letassy
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
authors.forename: Cheryl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cox
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cave
keywords: Diabetes risk assessment; community pharmacy; health promotion; pharmacy students