Introduction Type 2 diabetes is preventable in subjects with impaired glucose tolerance based on 2-hour plasma glucose (2hPG) during 75 g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). We incorporated routine biochemistry to improve the performance of a non-invasive diabetes risk score to identify individuals with abnormal glucose tolerance (AGT) defined by 2hPG≥7.8 mmol/L during OGTT.Research design and methods We used baseline data of 1938 individuals from the community-based “Better Health for Better Hong Kong - Hong Kong Family Diabetes Study (BHBHK-HKFDS) Cohort” recruited in 1998–2003. We incorporated routine biochemistry in a validated non-invasive diabetes risk score, and evaluated its performance using area under receiver operating characteristics (AUROC) with internal and external validation.Results The AUROC of the original non-invasive risk score to predict AGT was 0.698 (95% CI, 0.662 to 0.733). Following additional inclusion of fasting plasma glucose, serum potassium, creatinine, and urea, the AUROC increased to 0.778 (95% CI, 0.744 to 0.809, p