Danish researchers have developed a home test that uses thigh length as one of seven measurements to detect type 2 diabetes or prediabetes with high accuracy, potentially catching some of the 100,000 Danes living with undiagnosed diabetes.
Your thigh length might reveal whether you have diabetes. That’s the unexpected finding behind MEDWACS, a new online test developed by two DTU researchers and an Italian physician. The test asks for seven simple measurements you can take at home, including one that surprised even the researchers themselves: the length of your thigh bone.
As reported by DTU, the test can effectively identify people with prediabetes or undiagnosed type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is easy to diagnose with a blood test, but you need to suspect something is wrong first. “If you don’t have the suspicion, you don’t go to the doctor and get it taken,” says postdoc Daniel Yoo, who led the project at DTU Sustain.
Why Thigh Length Matters
The connection between thigh bone length and diabetes risk sounds bizarre until you understand the mechanism. Poor nutrition in early childhood slightly stunts bone growth and correlates with increased diabetes risk decades later. It’s a marker of your developmental conditions, not something you can change now.
But there’s more to it than childhood nutrition. Your body’s largest muscle group sits on your thighs. Those muscles remove sugar from your bloodstream. Shorter legs mean less total muscle mass to absorb glucose, increasing diabetes risk, explains Umberto Maggiore, professor at the University of Parma and the team’s medical expert.
The other six measurements MEDWACS requires are age, sex, BMI, waist circumference, upper arm circumference, and systolic blood pressure. The researchers used artificial intelligence and massive health datasets to identify these seven parameters from 3,700 possible options.
Testing the Test
The team validated their tool using health data from the United States and South Korea, where the number of sick and healthy people is known. MEDWACS performed as well as or better than other recognized testing methods in identifying people with prediabetes or undiagnosed type 2 diabetes.
“When MEDWACS performs well on populations as different as the American and South Korean ones, we have confidence that the test will also be able to detect Danes with diabetes or prediabetes,” Yoo says. But testing on Danish populations is still needed to be certain.
Living here for years, I’ve watched Denmark grapple with various health challenges. Around 100,000 Danes don’t know they have type 2 diabetes. Roughly half a million are estimated to have prediabetes, according to Diabetesforeningen. Type 2 diabetes is the most common form in Denmark, accounting for 80 percent of all diabetes cases.
The Cost of Missing Diabetes
The stakes are high. Diabetes can lead to serious complications and costs Danish society at least 13.3 billion kroner annually. Early detection of people with prediabetes or unrecognized diabetes is crucial for public health.
What strikes me about MEDWACS is its accessibility. Unlike clinical models requiring blood tests, this tool is completely non-invasive. You can access it online at www.dtu.dk/medwacs and enter your measurements yourself. It’s designed for adults 18 and over who haven’t been diagnosed with diabetes.
The research appears in the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation. The team is now publishing a similar tool to identify patients at high risk for kidney disease, which is a common diabetes complication.
Questions Remain
Still, I have reservations. The test needs validation on Danish data specifically. Health risks don’t always translate neatly across borders and populations. What works for Americans and South Koreans might perform differently here.
And there’s the communication challenge. Telling people their thigh length indicates diabetes risk could create unnecessary anxiety or fatalism. Your bone length was determined in childhood. You can’t change it now. The focus must remain on what you can control: diet, exercise, and regular health checks.
For expats and Danes alike, MEDWACS offers a low-barrier first step toward awareness. But it’s not a diagnosis. It’s a prompt to see your doctor. In a country where accessing healthcare can sometimes feel like navigating a bureaucratic maze, especially for newcomers, any tool that helps people recognize they need medical attention has value.
The real test will come when Danish health authorities decide whether MEDWACS belongs in official screening programs. Until then, it’s an interesting research finding with potential practical applications. Whether that potential becomes reality depends on further validation and careful implementation.
Sources and References
Ritzau: Længden på dit lår kan være med til at afsløre diabetes
The Danish Dream: Danish Police Ask DTU to Review Drone Evidence
The Danish Dream: Oak Processionary Spreads on Funen Health Warnings
The Danish Dream: Denmark’s Flexible Work Now an Official Health Risk
