Relationship between casual blood sugar and body mass index in a suburban northern Nigerian population: a short communication.
BACKGROUND
Obesity is the most important modifiable risk factor in the pathogenesis of type-2 diabetes reported in most cross sectional studies. However, racial factors seem to be important in the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and glucose intolerance. This study aims at defining the relationship between these variables in two suburban populations in Nigeria.


METHODS
A prospective survey of Adults aged 55 years or younger who gave informed consent, in two communities (Makarfi and Giwa) near Zaria, northern Nigeria was done. The BMI and casual blood sugar using capillary blood assessed with the Ames glucometer were determined for all the subjects. Students t-test was used to compare continuous variables while Pearson's correlation coefficient was used for continuous variables; the level of significance was p < 0.05 in each case.


RESULTS
Three-hundred and seventeen subjects participated in the study Mean age of subjects was 35.03 +/- 9.79 years (33.0 +/- 9.64 among females and 36.18 +/- 9.59 among males p = 0.1007).


CONCLUSIONS
Female subjects had significantly higher BMI than their male counter parts, (26.61 +/- 7.19 KgM2 versus 24.01 +/- 5.39, KgM2 p = 0.0341.) Casual blood sugar levels were however similar between males and females 85.21 +/-27.04 mg/dl versus 85.88 +/- 14.74 mg/dl, p = 0.8868. There was a positive but non-significant correlation between casual blood sugar and BMI among female subjects (r = +0.1520, p > 0.05) in the males however, the correlation between these variables was not significant (r = -0.0395, p > 0.5).
Bakari
A G
AG
Departments of Medicine,Chemical Pathology, Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital Zaria, Nigeria. abgirei@yahoo.com
Onyemelukwe
C
C
Sani
B G
BG
Aliyu
S
S
Hassan
S S
SS
Aliyu
T M
TM
D000328:Adult; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000032:analysis* / Q000502:physiology; D015992:Body Mass Index; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D018149:Glucose Intolerance / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009549:Nigeria / Q000453:epidemiology; D009765:Obesity / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D018881:Suburban Health
D001786:Blood Glucose