Central obesity predicts the worsening of glycemia in southern Chinese

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Abstract
AIMS: The association between obesity and type 2 diabetes has been found to be consistent across different ethnic populations. Our aim was to study the contribution of obesity to the development of type 2 diabetes in a non-obese Chinese population with a high prevalence of diabetes (9.8% in 1995–1996). METHODS: Six-hundred and forty-four non-diabetic subjects were recruited from the Hong Kong Cardiovascular Risk Factor Prevalence Study (1995–1996). This was a community-based population study which involved the use of a 75 g oral glucose tolerance test and 1985 World Health Organization diagnostic criteria. Their glycemic status was reassessed at 2 y. RESULTS: In subjects with impaired glucose tolerance (n=322), the annual progression rate to diabetes (4.8%; 95% CI 2.5–7.1%), was 8-fold that in control subjects (0.6%; 95% CI 0.0–1.4%; PP=0.0003) and post-load 2 h plasma glucose (OR per unit increase=2.02; 95% CI 1.76–2.34, PP=0.001) or WHR (P=0.019). CONCLUSION: Abdominal obesity, readily assessed by the measurement of WHR or waist circumference, was for the first time shown prospectively to be independently associated with the deterioration of glucose tolerance in a Chinese population.

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