MONDAY, June 19 (HealthDay News) -- New cases of type 2 diabetes in middle-aged Americans have doubled in the past 30 years, with most of the increase attributable to a rise in those with a high body mass index, according to a study in the June 19 issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
Caroline S. Fox, M.D., of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Framingham Heart Study in Massachusetts, and colleagues analyzed data on 3,104 subjects ages 40 to 55 who were diabetes-free at baseline, received a routine physical during 1971-1975, 1979-1983 and 1987-1991, and were followed for eight years.
The researchers found the age-adjusted eight-year incidence rate of diabetes was 2 percent, 3 percent and 3.7 percent among women and 2.7 percent, 3.6 percent and 5.8 percent among men in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, respectively. Compared with the 1970s, they found that the age- and sex-adjusted odds ratio for diabetes was 1.40 in the 1980s and 2.05 in the 1990s. They found that individuals with a body mass index equal to or greater than 30 kg/m2 accounted for most of the increase in the absolute incidence of diabetes.
"Careful surveillance of changes in diabetes incidence may be necessary if current trends of excess adiposity continue," the authors conclude.
Abstract
Full Text (subscription or payment may be required)
