[Relationship between abdominal obesity/pre-obesity and hyperglycemia in postmenopausal women]

To explore the relationship between abdominal obesity/pre-obesity and hyperglycemia in postmenopausal women.

A total of 323 women aged than 35 years or older and with natural menopause more than 12 months were selected from Suzhou Industrial Park in 2014 community comprehensive intervention for prevention and control of chronic diseases. Blood pressure, height, body weight, waist circumference, fasting plasma glucose (FPG) level, glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) and blood lipids were measured. Abdominal obesity and pre-obesity was diagnosed by waist circumference. Hyperglycemia was diagnosed by FPG and HbA1c.

The incidence of abdominal obesity was 31.0% in this population. The level of waist circumference was positively correlated with FPG (r = 0.18, P < 0.01) and HbA1c (r = 0.20, P < 0.01). The incidence of hyperglycemia was 34.4% and 83.9%, respectively, according to diagnostic criteria of FPG and HbA1c. When FPG was used as diagnosis, there were no significant difference on hyperglycemia incidence and risk between abdominal obesity/pre-obesity and non-obesity populations (31.8% vs 40.0%, P = 0.076). When HbA1c was used as diagnosis, hyperglycemic incidence was significantly higher in abdominal obesity/pre-obesity population than in non-obesity population (91.0% vs 80.7%, P = 0.020). The multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that abdominal obesity/ pre-obesity had significantly increased risk of hyperglycemia, with OR of 2.46 (95% CI 1.07 - 5.62, P = 0.034).

Abdominal obesity is likely to be a risk factor for hyperglycemia.