HbA1c alone might not reliably indicate India's diabetes prevalence – Authors' reply
Lovely Gupta and colleagues question the use of HbA1c in the Longitudinal Aging Study in India (LASI). We wish to make three points. First, we did not “concede … that HbA1c-only diagnosis is flawed”, and we disagree with the letter's suggestion that we did not meaningfully discuss HbA1c-related measurement issues. In our Discussion, we devoted a paragraph of 350 words, including 14 references, to the strengths and limitations of our use of HbA1c. We refer readers to this text. Additionally, allow us to clarify that HbA1c is largely unaffected by common haemoglobinopathies when measured by modern laboratory methods, such as the assay used in LASI.
Authors
- Eileen M. Crimmins (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5459-5239)
- David Flood (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4372-7387)
- David E. Bloom (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3731-3345)
- Kenneth M. Langa (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2798-1836)
- Sarang Pedgaonkar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7570-2037)
- Ashwini Shete (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0791-2128)
- Peifeng Hu
- Jinkook Lee
- Mohammed K. Ali
- T V Sekher
Institutions
- University of Southern California (US)
- Harvard University (US)
- Emory University (US)
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- International Institute for Population Sciences (IN)
- Indian Council of Medical Research (IN)
- National AIDS Research Institute (IN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- The Lancet Global Health
- Published
- 2026-01-07
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/s2214-109x(25)00530-3
- Primary Topic
- Diabetes, Cardiovascular Risks, and Lipoproteins
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00