Changing relative contribution of abdominal obesity and a family history of diabetes on prevalence of diabetes mellitus in Korean men and women aged 30-49 years from 2001 to 2010

Background: We investigated the change in the relative impact of a family history of diabetes (FH) and abdominal obesity on diabetes mellitus (DM) over a 10-year period in Korea.

Methods: We analyzed data from the 2001, 2005, and 2010 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey that were weighted to represent the entire Korean population in each year. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to examine the association between DM and FH or abdominal obesity.

Results: In men aged 30-49 years, the association between FH and DM was stronger in 2010 than in 2001; the odds ratio (OR) was 1.508 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.814-2.792) in 2001, 3.351 (95% CI, 1.599-7.024) in 2005, and 7.302 (95% CI, 3.451-15.451) in 2010 (P for trend = 0.003). In contrast, the association between abdominal obesity and DM was weaker in 2010 (OR, 0.969 [95% CI, 0.465-2.018]) than in 2001 (OR, 2.532 [95% CI, 1.572-4.080]) (P for trend = 0.037). In women aged 30-49 years, there was no significant change in OR of FH or abdominal obesity during the same period. (P for trend = 0.367 and 0.401, respectively).

Conclusions: In Korean men aged 30-49 years, the association between FH and DM has been stronger from 2001 to 2010, whereas abdominal obesity was less important in 2010 compared to 2001.