Is femur length the key height component in risk prediction of type 2 diabetes among adults?
OBJECTIVE
To examine the diabetes risk association with femur length, standing height, and height without femur length (HWFL) (HWFL = standing height--femur length).


METHODS
We used data from three time periods of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1999-2000, 2001-2002, and 2003-2004) for this cross-sectional analysis and confined the eligible subjects to 6,188 adults aged 20+ years who had fasted >or=8 h and had no missing values of femur length or standing height. The outcome measure was type 2 diabetes.


RESULTS
Multivariate logistic regression analyses indicated that the odds of type 2 diabetes per 1-SD value increase in femur length, standing height, and HWFL were 0.73 (95% CI 0.61-0.86), 0.91 (0.75-1.10), and 1.09 (0.90-1.32) for men, respectively, and 0.82 (0.70-0.97), 0.99 (0.82-1.21), and 1.11 (0.93-1.33) for women.


CONCLUSIONS
Our study supports the hypothesis that femur length may be the key height component in diabetes risk association.
Liu
Jian
J
Department of Community Health Sciences, Brock University, St. Catherines, Ontario, Canada. jliu@brocku.ca
Tan
Hongzhuan
H
Jeynes
Brian
B
D000328:Adult; D001827:Body Height; D049628:Body Size; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D005269:Femur / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D008297:Male; D015337:Multicenter Studies as Topic; D016017:Odds Ratio; D009929:Organ Size; D011336:Probability; D044469:Racial Groups; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012307:Risk Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D014481:United States