Objective: The aim of this study was to quantify the association between three anthropometric parameters and type 2 diabetes in an adult population in Guadeloupe and to evaluate the effect of age on these associations.
Designs and methods: We conducted a case-control study in a population recruited in an Health Center of Guadeloupe in Year 2000. A total of 309 subjects with documented type 2 diabetes were matched on sex and age (+/- 2 Years) with controls free of any glycemic abnormality. Student t-test was used and conditional logistic regressions were performed separately for men and women to quantify the association between type 2 diabetes and the explanatory variables, body mass index (BMI), waist to hip ratio (WHR) and waist circumference (WC).
Results: Mean (SD) WC was 89.0 cm (0.9) in non diabetics men and 97.3 cm (1.1) in diabetics ones, p<10-4. In women, it was 87.7 (0.8) cm for non diabetics and 96.3 cm (0.9) for diabetics. This difference was persistent for any tertile of age in each sex. It was discordant for BMI and WHR at higher tertile for men and women. In the multivariate analysis, Odds ratio[CI95%] for WC was 9.67 [2.32-40.20] in men and 2.97 [1.70-5.19] in women. It was 2.94 [0.99-8.74] in men and 6.15 [3.11-12.17] in women for WHR. Results for BMI were non significant in both sex.
Conclusion: Differences between WC and WHR over age groups and sex in predicting type 2 diabetes should be taken into account when using these parameters routinely in medical practice.