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Author(s) -
Idris Iskandar
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
diabetes, obesity and metabolism
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.445
H-Index - 128
eISSN - 1463-1326
pISSN - 1462-8902
DOI - 10.1111/dom.12943
Subject(s) - citation , computer science , library science
Although previous observational studies have indicated that abdominal fat is associated with type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease, it remains unclear however whether these associations represent a causal relationship. A study published in the journal JAMA have provided some causal association between people who are genetically at a greater risk of having a higher waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index with type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease. In this study, investigators gathered data from 4 genome-wide association studies conducted between 2007 and 2015, involving 322 154 participants, and individual-level, cross-sectional data from the UK Biobank collected between 2007 and 2011, which included data from a further 111 986 people. Analysis of these dataset showed that being genetically predisposed to a higher WHR adjusted for BMI was linked to increased levels of lipids, glucose, insulin, and systolic blood pressure, and a greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease. The investigators concluded that the findings agree with previous studies that associate abdominal fat with cardiometabolic disease and that the central distribution of body fat independent of BMI measurement, and could partly explain the disparity in risk of type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease that is reported in both individuals and subpopulations. The investigators also suggest that this findings may trigger the development of novel therapeutic strategies to target the reduction of abdominal fat and decreasing the risk of type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease.