Association of Obesity With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Hospital-Based Unmatched Case-Control Study

Background The prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and obesity is alarmingly increasing with the accessibility of the modern lifestyle. This study aimed to assess the association of obesity with T2DM among the patients visiting the Medicine Department of Ayub Teaching Hospital, Abbottabad, Pakistan. Method This hospital-based, unmatched case-control study was conducted from March 2022 to September 2022. A total of 200 patients (age ≥ 18) (100 cases and 100 controls) were recruited. Those patients with a history of T2DM were selected as cases, and those without diabetes were selected as controls after taking informed written consent. Patients with BMI ≥ 25 were considered obese. Data were collected through a non-probability convenience sampling technique using a self-structured non-validated questionnaire. Data were organized and analyzed through IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, version 26.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY). Results We found a significant positive association of obesity with T2DM with a crude odds ratio of 3.6 (95% CI: 2.0-6.6), a p-value of 0.000, and an adjusted odd ratio of 3.7 (95% CI: 1.9 - 7.1), with a p-value of 0.004 (adjusted for potential confounders, including gender, age group, stress, and status of physical activeness) using a logistic regression model. Conclusion It is concluded that obesity is strongly associated with developing T2DM and lack of physical activity, people over 45 years, and males with obesity have a higher chance of developing T2DM.