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

OBJECTIVES: 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. METHODS: 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. RESULTS: 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. CONCLUSIONS: 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.