Adult anthropometry in Type 2 diabetic population: A case-control study

This study was aimed to compare the body mass index (BMI) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) in their ability to predict type 2 diabetes risk in a large prospective cohort of men and women in Pakistan.

This was a case-control study conducted at Diabetic and medical OPD of GTTH. Anthropometric measures including BMI and WHR were analyzed. Student's t-test, Chi-squared test along with Cramer's V value, was applied to evaluate association between variables. Receiver operating curve (ROC) was used to assess anthropometric measures.

The study included 804 diabetics and 396 non-diabetics between 30-60 years of age. Comparing the BMI parameters it was found that 717 (89.2%) in diabetic group were overweight or obese (p-value < 0.001). On comparing the WHR, 97.9% diabetics had increased WHR (p-value <0.001). Both BMI & WHR were further compared using ROC curve which found out that WHR had an area under ROC of 0.720 & BMI has 0.680, suggesting that WHR is more better predictor of diabetes as compared to BMI.

Both BMI and WHR were strong discriminators of T2DM but WHR was found superior according to ROC value. Family history is significantly associated in patients with diabetes.