The Concept of CMR
Slides, videos and moreThe Concept of CMR
Epidemiology
Abdominal Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes
- 1Key Points (1 page)
- 2The “Diabesity” Epidemic (1 page)
- 3Beyond Excess Body Weight (1 page)
- 4Abdominal Obesity: the Diabetogenic Obesity (3 pages)
- 5Upper Body Fat Distribution: the Importance of Intra-abdominal Adipose Tissue (2 pages)
- 6References (1 page)
Abdominal Obesity: the Diabetogenic Obesity
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Figure: 
Figure: Ohlson et al. (17) conducted the first large prospective study on the link between fat distribution and the incidence of type 2 diabetes. The study involved 792 men selected by year of birth (54 years old) and followed for 13.5 years. The population sample was divided into tertiles according to body mass index (BMI) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) as a marker of relative abdominal fat accumulation (Figure). The authors found that the risk of type 2 diabetes rose in step with WHR within each BMI tertile. Even among non-obese men, being in the third WHR tertile was associated with an increased incidence of type 2 diabetes. Moreover, in the lowest WHR tertile, the risk of developing the disease did not increase with BMI. The subgroup with both elevated BMI and WHR were at highest risk of type 2 diabetes. Furthermore, elevated BMI and WHR increased the risk of type 2 diabetes thirtyfold compared to elevated BMI alone. These observations indicate that abdominal adipose tissue measured by WHR is an important marker of diabetes risk even when the degree of overall obesity is taken into account.
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