title: Associations between benign cutaneous nevi and risk of Type 2 diabetes mellitus in men and women: results from two prospective cohort studies.
abstract: To examine the association of cutaneous nevi with Type 2 diabetes risk.
  
  
  
  We prospectivly examined the associations between nevus count and risk of Type 2 diabetes among 26 240 men (1988-2010) from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study and 67 050 women (1986-2010) from the Nurses' Health Study. Information on the numbers of cutaneous nevi on arms at baseline and incident cases of Type 2 diabetes was collected using validated questionnaires.
  
  
  
  During 1 879 287 person-years of follow-up, we documented 9040 incident cases of Type 2 diabetes. After adjustment for age, BMI and other diabetes risk factors, greater number of nevi was associated with higher risk of Type 2 diabetes. Multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios for <1, 1-5, 6-14 and ≥15 nevi were 1.00 (reference), 1.02 (95% CI 0.93, 1.13), 1.08 (95% CI 0.88, 1.34) and 1.57 (95% CI 1.15, 2.15), respectively, for men (P for linear trend = 0.01), and 1.00 (reference), 1.07 (95% CI 1.02, 1.13), 0.98 (95% CI 0.87, 1.10), and 1.25 (1.01, 1.54), respectively, for women (P for linear trend = 0.05). This positive association remained consistent across subgroups stratified by age, BMI, multivitamin use, smoking status, alcohol, physical activity, history of hypercholesterolaemia, family history of diabetes, history of hypertension and menopausal status (in women).
  
  
  
  Cutaneous nevus count may represent a novel marker for development of Type 2 diabetes, suggesting a possible unique melanocytic nevus-related mechanism in the pathogenesis of Type 2 diabetes. Further studies are warranted to confirm the findings and to investigate the underlying mechanisms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Therapy of Tianjin, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, Tianjin, China.|Department of Epidemiology, Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN.|Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA.|Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
authors.forename: Q
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Epidemiology Branch, Division of Intramural Population Health Research, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, MD.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN.
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University, Providence, RI.|Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Brown University, Providence, RI.
authors.forename: W-Q
authors.initials: WQ
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA.|Division of Preventive Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Manson
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA.|Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.|Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA.
authors.forename: F B
authors.initials: FB
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Song
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D001132:Arm; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006282:Health Personnel; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009508:Nevus, Pigmented / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology; D009726:Nurses; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology; D047368:Tumor Burden; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology