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Published on: October 31, 2017
Postprandial Saturated Fatty Acids Increase the Risk of Type 2 Diabetes: A Cohort Study in a Chinese Population
Yanjiao Wang1, Xing Meng1, Xinrui Deng1
1National Key Discipline Laboratory, Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, School of Public Health, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, People's Republic of China.
Context:
Experimental evidence suggests saturated fatty acids (SFAs) are associated with insulin resistance, but results from epidemiological studies on fasting SFAs-diabetes risk are inconsistent.
Objective:
We investigated SFA (fasting and 2-hour postprandial) profiles and diabetes risk.
Design Setting:
A total of 8940 participants were recruited for the Harbin People's Health Study in 2008. Serum SFAs (fasting and 2-hour postprandial) at baseline in Chinese men and women without diabetes were profiled, and type 2 diabetes was ascertained using World Health Organization criteria after 4 to 7 years of follow-up.
Outcome:
Associations between 2-hour postprandial SFA (2h-SFA) and diabetes.
Results:
At baseline, incident cases of diabetes were older with a higher body mass index and waist circumference. After a mean follow-up of 6.7 years, 658 incident cases of diabetes occurred. After propensity score computation and inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) estimation, fasting SFAs were unrelated to diabetes risk but IPTW-adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the highest tertile of 2-hour postprandial stearic acid (2h-SA), 2-hour postprandial palmitic acid (2h-PA), and 2h-SFA for diabetes risk were 2.50 (2.08 to 3.16), 1.56 (1.23 to 2.02), and 1.70 (1.34 to 2.17), respectively (P-trend < 0.0001). Similarly, 2h-SA/fasting SA, 2h-PA/fasting PA, and 2h-SFA/fasting SFA ratios [IPTW-adjusted OR (95% CI): 2.94 (2.39 to 3.58), 2.31 (1.80 to 2.93), and 2.42 (1.91 to 3.11), respectively; P-trend < 0.0001] predicted the diabetes risk.
Conclusions:
Higher serum 2h-SFA (but not fasting SFA) independently predicted diabetes risk.
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