Obesity poses larger diabetes risk
than inactivity
February 15, 2007
NEW YORK -Obesity
and lack of physical activity both raise the risk of type
2 diabetes in women, obesity appears to be the more important
factor, researchers report in the journal Diabetes Care.
Dr. Frank Hu of the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston,
and colleagues note that the relative contribution of
obesity and inactivity to the risk of developing type
2 diabetes remains controversial.
To investigate further, the researchers monitored 68,907
women taking part in the Nurses' Health Study, a large ongoing
study that is evaluating women's health over time. The women
in the current trial had no history of diabetes, cardiovascular
disease or cancer at study entry. During 16 years of follow-up,
there were 4,030 incident cases of type 2 diabetes.
After allowing for age, smoking, and other diabetes-associated
factors, the risk of type 2 diabetes increased progressively
with increasing body mass index (BMI - the ratio of height
to weight often used to determine if someone is overweight
or too thin). The risk also increased with waist circumference,
and decreased with physical activity levels.
Using women who had a healthy weight (BMI of less than
25) and were physically active as the reference group, the
relative risks of type 2 diabetes were 16.75 in women with
a BMI of 30 or more and were inactive. The corresponding
risk in obese women who were active was 10.74. In women
who were lean but inactive, the relative risk was 2.08
Although both variables were significant predictors of
type 2 diabetes, the researchers found that the association
for waist circumference was substantially stronger than
that for physical inactivity.
Researchers conclude that "the magnitude of risk contributed
by obesity is much greater than that imparted by lack of
physical activity," and therefore "weight
loss and maintenance of healthy weight should be
emphasized as an eventual goal to prevent the onset of type
2 diabetesl.
Read the complete news article here:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov
