The Chinese University has embarked on a four-year programme to identify adults at high risk of developing early-onset diabetes over the next decade to prevent and delay the disease from taking hold in people before they are 40 years old.

While it aims to recruit 9,000 people aged between 18 and 44 who have not been diagnosed as being diabetic and carry at least one risk factor, such as having a history of smoking and being overweight, more than 4,000 people have already joined the scheme since it kicked off in May last year.

Juliana Chan, director of the Hong Kong Institute of Diabetes and Obesity at the university, said early-onset diabetes is a worrying illness.

"This will result in reduced lifespans by nearly 10 years, or before that they can have recurrent hospitalisations, one complication after another," she said.

"So it's really a very, very severe illness, very silent."

Assistant professor Juliana Lui, from the department of medicine and therapeutics, said the programme will offer medications for patients to prevent complications.

"When they're exposed to diabetes – the longer that they get exposed to, the riskier [will be their] cardiovascular-renal complications," she said.

"So when we find them and identify them through genetic screening in this programme, we can treat them and intensify their treatment earlier."

By undergoing intensified treatment, including maintaining their blood pressure and blood sugar at certain levels, the team estimated that each young-onset diabetic patient can save about HK$8,900 in medical costs annually compared to those not getting treated.

Under the programme, patients will also be encouraged to exercise more frequently as part of a holistic approach to treatment on top of follow-up medical appointments.

The team called on those interested to sign up on the programme's website.