Leptin predicts diabetes but not cardiovascular disease: results from a large prospective study in an elderly population.
OBJECTIVE
To clarify the association of circulating levels of leptin with risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) events and new-onset diabetes in men and women.


METHODS
We related baseline leptin levels to CVD events (n = 864) and incident diabetes (n = 289) in an elderly population (n = 5,672) over 3.2 years of follow-up.


RESULTS
In treatment-, age-, and country-adjusted models, leptin was not associated with risk of CVD in men (hazard ratio 1.02 [95% CI 0.90-1.16] per unit log-leptin increase) or women (1.05 [0.91-1.20]) but was associated with risk of diabetes in men (2.75 [2.14-3.52]) and women (1.54 [1.22-1.94]). After adjusting for classic risk factors and BMI, C-reactive protein, and glucose, the diabetes association retained significance in men (1.85 [1.30-2.63]) but not in women (0.89 [0.64-1.26]).


CONCLUSIONS
Leptin, similar to other markers of adiposity in general, is more strongly related to risk of diabetes than CVD in the elderly.
Welsh
Paul
P
Faculty of Medicine, University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK. p.welsh@clinmed.gla.ac.uk
Murray
Heather M
HM
Buckley
Brendan M
BM
de Craen
Anton J M
AJ
Ford
Ian
I
Jukema
J Wouter
JW
Macfarlane
Peter W
PW
Packard
Chris J
CJ
Stott
David J
DJ
Westendorp
Rudi G J
RG
Shepherd
James
J
Sattar
Naveed
N
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007494:Ireland / Q000453:epidemiology; D020738:Leptin / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000453:epidemiology; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011446:Prospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D012606:Scotland / Q000453:epidemiology; D020521:Stroke / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality
D015415:Biomarkers; D020738:Leptin