Results of a new study, carried out to access a new screening test for diabetes, have come as a relief to millions of patients who are required to go without food for hours on end before undertaking a blood test to check sugar levels.

Doctors discovered that a new type of blood test, one that tends to measure long-term control of blood sugar levels, is a much superior screening tool.

Current estimates say that about 24 million Americans suffer from diabetes, and a quarter of them don't even know that they have contracted the condition.

It is important that the at-risk patients are regularly screened, because if diabetes is left untreated, it can end up causing complications of the heart, nerve damage and premature death.

But with the new A1C test, which doctors have confirmed has been a better method in the 11,000 adult who were analyzed; researchers have managed to find a new and improved way of screening.

The new test can be done at any time and patients do not need to fast. Also, its results were "closely tied to their future odds of heart disease and diabetes".