Lower your risk of type 2 diabetes
One in five adults in Wales has diabetes or is on the path to it. But type 2 diabetes can often be prevented – and the first step is finding out your risk.
Find out your risk
It’s free and only takes two minutes.
The free Diabetes UK Know Your Risk tool gives you a personal risk score based on simple questions about your age, family history, waist size, and a few other factors. No blood test is needed. Your answers are not stored or shared.
Once you have your score, receive guidance from Diabetes UK on what steps to take next, then come back to this page to help you find the right support for you.
What your ‘Know Your Risk’ result means
Low or moderate risk – you’re in a good place, but it’s still worth knowing what can affect your risk over time. Small changes now can keep you there.
High or very high risk – this doesn’t mean you will develop type 2 diabetes. It means now is a good time to get support. The risk tool will provide you with a letter you can take to your GP so they can carry out a simple blood test that will identify your blood sugar levels. They will then plan next steps with you.
Support available in Wales
There is help available in Wales, and it works.
All Wales Diabetes Prevention Programme
If your GP identifies you as being at high risk through a blood test, you may be referred to the All Wales Diabetes Prevention Programme (AWDPP). This is a free to attend, appointment in your local area with a trained healthcare support worker, where you are supported to set personalised goals to reduce your risk. People who attend reduce their risk of developing type 2 diabetes by nearly a quarter.
The programme is currently available in many areas of Wales. Speak to your Primary Care team to find out if it is available near you and whether you may be eligible.
Let’s Prevent Diabetes
A free online education programme for anyone aged 18 or over living in Wales who is at risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Learn about how to reduce your risk, at your own pace, in your own time.
Healthy Weight, Healthy You
Achieving and maintaining a healthy weight has lots of great benefits, including lowering your risk of type 2 diabetes. Take the first step to a healthy weight with free and expert NHS advice tailored to you. Join the tens of thousands across Wales who are already on their journey, today.
Help Me Quit
Quitting smoking is the best thing you can do for your health, including reducing your risk of type 2 diabetes. Help Me Quit is completely free, non-judgemental and here to help you quit for good with expert NHS support tailored to you. Over 100,000 have already quit for good with Help Me Quit, improved their health and saved thousands of pounds each year.
Baby Steps
If you have had gestational diabetes during a pregnancy, your risk of developing type 2 diabetes is higher. Baby Steps is a free online programme specifically designed for you.
You don’t have to do this alone
Type 2 diabetes risk is shaped by many things – your family history, where you live, your circumstances, as well as lifestyle. It is not simply a matter of willpower or personal choice. The support on this page is here to help you take steps that feel realistic and achievable for your life.
If your risk score is high, or if you have symptoms such as increased thirst, needing to urinate more often, unexplained tiredness, or slow-healing wounds, speak to your GP.
Already living with diabetes?
If you have already been diagnosed, there is support to help you live well.
Why this matters
Type 2 diabetes is one of Wales’ most urgent health challenges – and one of the most preventable. There are now 230,371 people diagnosed with diabetes in Wales, rising faster than projected. A further 269,747 are living with prediabetes, and an estimated 58,906 have Type 2 diabetes and don’t yet know it. That means one in five adults in Wales is affected.
Diabetes can cause sight loss, kidney failure, heart attack, and stroke. It shortens lives. But it doesn’t have to.
With early knowledge and the right support, Type 2 diabetes can often be prevented – or, for those already diagnosed, managed well and sometimes reversed.