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Abdominal
obesity increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes
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These
data are from the Nurses’ Health Study,1 an observational
study that followed a cohort of 43,581 women between 1986 and 1994 in the
USA. The analysis presented here was
designed to define the association between waist circumference and the risk
of developing type 2 diabetes.
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The risk
of developing type 2 diabetes increased linearly with an increasing waist
circumference. The relative risk for women at the 90th percentile of waist
circumference (equivalent to a waist measurement of 92 cm [36 in]) was 5.1
(95% CI 2.9-8.9) compared with women at the 10th percentile (waist
measurement of 67 cm [26.2 in]). High
waist circumference is a powerful predictor of an increased risk of
developing type 2 diabetes.
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Previous
slides have defined the central role of abdominal obesity in the diagnostic
criteria for the metabolic syndrome.
People with the metabolic syndrome have a 5-fold greater risk of
developing type 2 diabetes, if not already present.2
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1. Carey
VJ, Walters EE, Colditz GA et al. Body
fat distribution and risk of non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus in
women. The Nurses' Health Study. Am J
Epidemiol 1997;145:614-9.
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2. Stern
MP, Williams K, Gonzalez-Villalpando C, Hunt KJ, Haffner SM. Does the
metabolic syndrome improve identification of individuals at risk of type 2
diabetes and/or cardiovascular disease?
Diabetes Care 2004;27:2676-81.
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