The risks are cumulative, with both higher blood glucose levels, and the total amount of time it spends elevated, increasing the overall complication rate.

IFG can eventually progress to type 2 diabetes mellitus without intervention, which typically involves lifestyle modification.

Those with impaired fasting glucose have a 1.5 fold increased risk of developing clinical diabetes within 10 years, when compared to the general population.

Such symptoms include:[4] As impaired fasting glucose is considered a precursor condition for type 2 diabetes, it shares the same environmental and genetic risk factors.

Certain risk factors, such as being of Afro-Caribbean or South Asian ethnicity, as well as increasing age, are unavoidable, and such individuals may be advised to follow these guidelines, as well as monitor their blood glucose levels, more closely.