title: Asthma and the risk of type 2 diabetes in the Singapore Chinese Health Study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Asthma is believed to increase the risk for several proinflammatory diseases, yet epidemiologic studies on asthma in relation to risk of developing type 2 diabetes are sparse and have reported inconsistent results. In the present study, we investigated the hypothesis that asthma is associated with an increased risk of incident type 2 diabetes in Chinese adults.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used data from the Singapore Chinese Health Study, including Chinese men and women aged 45-74 years, free of cancer, heart disease, stroke, and diabetes at baseline (1993-1998) and followed through 2004 for incident physician-diagnosed diabetes. Cox regression models were used to examine the associations between self-reported history of physician-diagnosed asthma and risk of diabetes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  During an average follow-up of 5.7 years per person, 2234 of the 42,842 participants included in the current analyses reported diagnoses of type 2 diabetes. After adjustment for potential confounders, not including body mass index (BMI), asthma was associated with a 31% increased risk of incident diabetes (HR=1.31; 95% CI: 1.00-1.72). The association was attenuated after adjustment for adult BMI (HR=1.25; 95% CI: 0.95-1.64). The asthma-diabetes association appeared stronger for adult- vs. child-diagnosed asthma cases, and for participants who were obese compared to non-obese.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In Singaporean Chinese adults we observed a positive association between self-reported, physician-diagnosed asthma and risk of developing type 2 diabetes that was modestly attenuated by adjustment for BMI.
authors.affiliation: University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, 1300 S 2nd St, Suite 300, Minneapolis MN 55454, United States. muel0266@umn.edu
authors.forename: Noel T
authors.initials: NT
authors.lastname: Mueller
authors.forename: Woon-Puay
authors.initials: WP
authors.lastname: Koh
authors.forename: Andrew O
authors.initials: AO
authors.lastname: Odegaard
authors.forename: Myron D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Gross
authors.forename: Jian-Min
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.forename: Mark A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Pereira
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D044466:Asian People; D001249:Asthma / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012307:Risk Factors; D012846:Singapore