The One-Hour Oral Glucose Tolerance Test

Response of middle-aged men to loo-gram and 50-gram doses of glucose given fasting and 1, 2, and 3 hours after meal. PREFACE This is one of several studies designed to evaluate examination procedures used in the first cycle of the Health ESamination Survey. These studies constitute efforts to define and to measure some of the components of variation in the examination techniques. Where the techniques used in the Health Examination differ from stand­ ard techniques, an effort is made to evaluate the differences. This report deals with the glucose tolerance test. In order to accommodate a glucose tolerance test within the Health Examination Survey it was necessary to modify the standard glucose toler­ ance test in a number of respects: Where the standard test requires at a minimum that the person come in for examination after an overnight fast, drink 100 grams of glucose, and submit to several venipunctures, the Health Examination used a test which required no advance preparation, a challenge of 50 grams of glucose, and only one venous specimen. While expert advice had sug­ gested that this modified test would yield mean­ ingful data on glucose tolerance, it seemed desira­ ble to evaluate this test more precisely by a special study. Similar problems are faced by a number of ongoing epidemiological studies in which diabetes and its relationships to other diseases are being examined. One such investigation, the Tecumseh Community Health Study, carried out under the auspices of the Center for Research in Diseases of the Heart, Circulation and Related Disorders of the University of Michigan, supported by Grants H-4145 and HE-06378 from the National Heart Institute, the National Institutes of Health, Bethes­ da, Maryland, is using a similar test procedure employing a load of 100 rather than 50 grams of glucose. A collaborative study to evaluate these procedures was set up under the direction of for advice on certain aspects of the project. The study was conducted in the Federal Correctional Institution at Milan, Michigan. For assisting in many ways we owethanks toMr. L.B. Stevens, Warden, to Dr. Roland Ware, Chief Medi­ cal Officer, and to members of their staffs. The volunteers who submitted to the long and uncom­ fortable series of test procedures deserve special credit. Field tests were performed under thesuper­ vision of Dr. Hayner by Mr. Albert0 Faustino and Mr. Keith Lepard. Food records were trans­ lated into estimates of carbohydrate intake by …