Waist circumference is useful in knowing diabetes risk
Wednesday June 6th, 2012
A person's waist circumference is linked to their risk of type 2 diabetes, regardless of their body mass index, new research has found.
A
higher body mass index (BMI), measuring weight against height, is a known
predictor of type 2 diabetes, explains Dr Claudia Langenberg of the InterAct
consortium, a partnership of nine European countries together with India.
But the new research is the latest to suggest that simply measuring the waist may be a good way of detecting risk.
Current clinical practice generally relies on measurement of BMI to identify individuals at increased risk, but it is financially and logistically difficult to test and intervene on all overweight and obese individuals, the team wrote in the journal PLoS Medicine yesterday (June 5).
On the other hand, waist circumference "is a simple and reliable measure of fat distribution that may add to the prediction of type 2 diabetes".
Because previous studies have been small, the team carried out a project based at 26 centres in eight European countries including 12,403 people with type 2 diabetes and 16,154 similar people without diabetes.
They found that BMI and waist circumference were each independently associated with type 2 diabetes, with waist circumference being a stronger risk factor in women than in men.
"Among the large group of overweight individuals, waist circumference measurement was highly informative and facilitated the identification of a subgroup of overweight people with high waist circumference whose ten year type 2 diabetes risk was comparable to that of the obese group," reports the team.
They conclude: "Waist circumference is independently and strongly associated with type 2 diabetes, particularly in women, and should be more widely measured for risk stratification. It identifies a high-risk subgroup of individuals who could benefit from individualised preventive action."
Tags: Asia | Diabetes | Diet & Food | Europe | Fitness
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