HbA1c provides a longer-term trend, similar to an average, of how high your blood sugar levels have been over a period of time.
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Diabetes screening test is a good way of preventing the development of diabetes at an early stage. At Tuckton pharmacy, our service looks at your HBA1c levels via our highly efficient Alfinion 2 analyser in a matter of minutes.
The term HbA1c refers to glycated haemoglobin. It develops when haemoglobin, a protein within red blood cells that carries oxygen throughout your body, joins with glucose in the blood, becoming ‘glycated’.
Measuring glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) gives an overall picture of what our average blood sugar levels have been over a period of weeks or months.
HbA1c provides a longer-term trend, similar to an average, of how high your blood sugar levels have been over a period of time.
An HbA1c reading can be taken from blood from a finger but is often taken from a blood sample that is taken from your arm.
Blood glucose level is the concentration of glucose in your blood at a single point in time, i.e. the very moment of the test.
This is measured using a fasting plasma glucose test, which can be carried out using blood taken from a finger or can be taken from a blood sample from the arm.
However, fasting glucose tests provide an indication of your current glucose levels only, whereas the HbA1c test serves as an overall marker of what your average levels are over a period of 2-3 months.
The haemoglobin A1c test can display you as diabetic, pre-diabetic or normal under the following levels:
| HbA1c | Mmol/mol | Percentage |
| Normal | Below or up to 40 mmol/mol | ≤ 6% |
| Prediabetic | Between 42 to 47 mmol/mol | 6% to 6.4% |
| Diabetic | 48 mmol/mol or above | ≥ 6.5% |
