Aim: The study investigated the relationship of general (body mass index [BMI]) and central (waist circumference [WC]; waist-hip ratio [WHipR]; waist-height ratio [WHeightR]) adiposity with all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD)-related mortality in an Asian population with diabetes.
Methods: A total of 13,278 participants with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) recruited from public-sector primary-care and specialist outpatients clinics in Singapore were followed-up for a median duration of 2.9 years, during which time there were 524 deaths. Cox proportional-hazards regression and competing-risk models were used to obtain hazard ratios (HRs) for anthropometric variables of all-cause and CVD-related mortality.
Results: After adjusting for BMI, the highest quintiles of WC, WHipR and WHeightR were all positively associated with mortality compared with the lowest quintiles, with WHeightR exhibiting the largest effect sizes [all-cause mortality HR: 2.13, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.33-3.42; CVD-related mortality HR: 3.42, 95% CI: 1.62-7.19]. Being overweight but not obese (BMI:≥23.0 but<27.5kg/m(2)) was associated with a decreased risk of CVD-related mortality in those aged≥65 years (HR: 0.47, 95% CI: 0.29-0.75), but not in those aged<65 years (HR: 1.11, 95% CI: 0.49-2.50).
Conclusion: Overweight, but not obesity, was associated with a reduction in risk of mortality. This was seen in T2DM patients aged≥65 years, but not in those younger than this. At the same BMI, having higher central-obesity indices such as WC, WHipR and WHeightR also increased the risk of mortality.
Keywords: Anthropometric indices; Central obesity; Diabetes mellitus; Obesity; Short-term mortality.
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