Obesity and undiagnosed diabetes in the U.S.
OBJECTIVE
To study whether obese individuals, who are at higher risk for diabetes and disparities in care than nonobese individuals, are more likely to have undiagnosed diabetes.


METHODS
We performed an analysis of 5,514 adult participants in the 1999-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Participants were interviewed about sociodemographic and medical data, including whether they had been diagnosed with diabetes, and were examined for height, weight, and fasting plasma glucose level >or=126 mg/dl or by previous physician diagnosis. After categorizing participants into normal weight, overweight, and obese according to BMI, the prevalence and diagnosis of diabetes across BMI categories was compared using chi(2).


RESULTS
Of the 9.8% (weighted sample) of participants who had diabetes, based on fasting glucose levels and self-reported diagnosis, 28.1% were undiagnosed, translating to an estimated 5.2 million people in the U.S. population. The proportion undiagnosed was not significantly different among normal-weight (22.2%), overweight (32.5%), or obese adults (27.4%). Nevertheless, obese adults comprise more than half of the undiagnosed diabetes cases (2.7 million). Relative to normal-weight adults, the adjusted odds ratio (OR) for having undiagnosed diabetes was 1.50 (0.73-3.08) in overweight and 1.37 (0.72-2.63) in obese adults.


CONCLUSIONS
Despite a higher underlying risk of diabetes and widespread clinical recognition of this higher risk, obesity does not increase the likelihood that an individual's diabetes will be diagnosed.
Division of General Medicine and Primary Care, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. cwee@bidmc.harvard.edu
Christina C
CC
Wee
Mary Beth
MB
Hamel
Annong
A
Huang
Roger B
RB
Davis
Murray A
MA
Mittleman
Ellen P
EP
McCarthy
D000328:Adult; D017668:Age of Onset; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality; D044469:Racial Groups / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012307:Risk Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology