BMI and diabetes risk in Singaporean Chinese.
OBJECTIVE
Increased BMI is a robust risk factor for type 2 diabetes. Paradoxically, South Asians have relatively low BMIs despite their high prevalence of type 2 diabetes. We examined the association between BMI and incident type 2 diabetes because detailed prospective cohort data on this topic in Asians are scarce.


METHODS
This study was a prospective analysis of 37,091 men and women aged 45-74 years in the Singapore Chinese Health Study, using Cox regression analysis.


RESULTS
Risk of incident type 2 diabetes significantly increased beginning with BMIs 18.5-23.0 kg/m(2)(relative risk 2.47 [95% CI 1.75-3.48]) and continued in a monotonic fashion across the spectrum of BMI. Results were stronger for younger than for older adults.


CONCLUSIONS
BMIs considered lean and normal in Singaporean Chinese are strongly associated with increased risk of incident type 2 diabetes. This association weakened with advanced age but remained significant.
Odegaard
Andrew O
AO
Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
Koh
Woon-Puay
WP
Vazquez
Gabrielle
G
Arakawa
Kazuko
K
Lee
Hin-Peng
HP
Yu
Mimi C
MC
Pereira
Mark A
MA