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Aim: To evaluate the value and feasibility of capillary glucose assessment, combined with other non‐laboratory measures, in screening for diabetes and prediabetes in the community. Methods: In this cross‐sectional study, we assessed fasting capillary glucose, fasting plasma glucose, and both capillary glucose and plasma glucose values after 2‐h oral glucose tolerance tests in a total of 3736 samples. We determined the optimal threshold of capillary glucose using receiver‐operating characteristic curve analysis. The effect of screening methods using capillary glucose combined with other variables, such as age, BMI and waist circumference, was assessed according to area under the receiver‐operating characteristic curve. Results: There was a strong positive correlation between capillary glucose and venous plasma glucose. The area under the curve for the model using fasting capillary glucose to screen for impaired fasting glucose was 0.722, while that for the model using capillary glucose after a 2‐h oral glucose tolerance test to screen for impaired glucose tolerance was 0.916. The area under the curve for the model using fasting capillary glucose to screen for diabetes was 0.835, while that for the model using 2‐h oral glucose tolerance test capillary glucose was 0.912. The area under the curve for the model using fasting capillary glucose + 2‐h oral glucose tolerance test capillary glucose to screen for diabetes was 0.945. The discriminatory capability of models using capillary glucose was somewhat improved by adding non‐laboratory variables. Conclusions: Capillary glucose could be an alternative for screening for diabetes and prediabetes, especially in low‐resource areas. What's new?: Plasma glucose has long been used for the diagnosis of diabetes. Capillary glucose has been shown to have a strong correlation with plasma glucose.We explored the use of capillary glucose in screening for diabetes and prediabetes, and found that it could be an acceptable alternative to mass screening in order to prevent progression to diabetes and severe complications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]