Related Health & Metabolic Calculators
What is HOMA-IR?
HOMA-IR (Homeostatic Model Assessment for Insulin Resistance) is a calculation that helps to evaluate how well your body's insulin and glucose regulation system is working. It uses your fasting blood glucose and fasting insulin levels to produce a score that indicates the degree of insulin resistance.
Insulin resistance is a condition where cells in your body do not respond effectively to the hormone insulin. This means your pancreas has to produce more insulin to help glucose enter the cells. High HOMA-IR scores are a key indicator of insulin resistance, which is a precursor to prediabetes and type 2 diabetes.
How to Use the HOMA-IR Calculator
- Get Your Lab Results: You will need two values from a recent blood test taken while fasting: your fasting glucose and your fasting insulin level.
- Select Units: Choose the units that match your lab report. Glucose can be in mg/dL (common in the US) or mmol/L. Insulin can be in µU/mL (or mIU/L) or pmol/L.
- Enter Your Values: Input your lab results into the corresponding fields.
- Calculate: See your calculated HOMA-IR score and a general interpretation of the result.
Interpreting Your HOMA-IR Score
While there is no universally agreed-upon cutoff, the following ranges are commonly used for interpretation:
- Less than 1.0: Optimal insulin sensitivity.
- Greater than 1.9: Indicates early insulin resistance.
- Greater than 2.9: Indicates significant insulin resistance.