title: Height at Late Adolescence and Incident Diabetes among Young Men.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Short stature was suggested as a risk factor for diabetes onset among middle age individuals, but whether this is the case among young adults is unclear. Our goal was to assess the association between height and incident diabetes among young men.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Incident diabetes was assessed among 32,055 men with no history of diabetes, from the prospectively followed young adults of the MELANY cohort. Height was measured at two time points; at adolescence (mean age 17.4±0.3 years) and grouped according to the US-CDC percentiles and at young adulthood (mean age 31.0±5.6 years). Cox proportional hazards models were applied. There were 702 new cases of diabetes during a mean follow-up of 6.3±4.3 years. There was a significant increase in the crude diabetes incidence rate with decreasing adolescent height percentile, from 4.23 cases/104 person-years in the <10th percentile group to 2.44 cases/104 person-years in the 75th≤ percentile group. These results persisted when clinical and biochemical diabetes risk factors were included in multivariable models. Compared to the 75th≤ percentile group, height below the 10th percentile was associated with a hazard ratio (HR) of 1.64 (95%CI 1.09-2.46, p = 0.017) for incident diabetes after adjustment for age, body mass index (BMI), fasting plasma glucose, HDL-cholesterol and triglyceride levels, white blood cells count, socioeconomic status, country of origin, family history of diabetes, sleep quality and physical activity. At age 30 years, each 1-cm decrement in adult height was associated with a 2.5% increase in diabetes adjusted risk (HR 1.025, 95%CI 1.01-1.04, p = 0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Shorter height at late adolescence or young adulthood was associated with an increased risk of incident diabetes among young men, independent of BMI and other diabetes risk factors.
authors: Department of Medicine I, Tel-Aviv Medical Center, Tel-Aviv, Israel; The Israel Defense Forces Medical Corps, Tel Hashomer, Israel.
authors: Ariel
authors: A
authors: Furer
authors: Israel Ministry of Health, Jerusalem, Israel; The Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
authors: Arnon
authors: A
authors: Afek
authors: Department of Medicine I, Tel-Aviv Medical Center, Tel-Aviv, Israel; The Israel Defense Forces Medical Corps, Tel Hashomer, Israel.
authors: Zivan
authors: Z
authors: Beer
authors: The Israel Defense Forces Medical Corps, Tel Hashomer, Israel; The Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
authors: Estela
authors: E
authors: Derazne
authors: The Israel Defense Forces Medical Corps, Tel Hashomer, Israel.
authors: Dorit
authors: D
authors: Tzur
authors: The Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel; Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism Unit, Edmond and Lily Safra Children's Hospital, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel.
authors: Orit
authors: O
authors: Pinhas-Hamiel
authors: The Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel; The Women and Children's Health Research Unit, Gertner Institute, Tel Hashomer, Israel.
authors: Brian
authors: B
authors: Reichman
authors: The Israel Defense Forces Medical Corps, Tel Hashomer, Israel; The Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel; Department of Medicine B, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel; The Dr. Pinchas Bornstein Talpiot Medical Leadership Program, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel.
authors: Gilad
authors: G
authors: Twig
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001827:Body Height; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models