Highlights
- •What is the association between BMI and mortality in people with and without diabetes mellitus?
- •Compared to normal BMI, the risk of death was a 33% lower in overweight people with diabetes and 12% lower in those without.
- •For obese class I, the risk was 35% lower in diabetes and 5% lower in non-diabetes.
- •For obese class III, the risk was a 10% non-significantly lower in diabetes and 29% higher in non-diabetes.
- •For the same level of obesity, mortality risk was higher in non-diabetes than in diabetes.
Abstract
Background and Aims
To investigate the association of body mass index with all-cause, cardiovascular and
cancer mortality in individuals with and without diabetes.
Methods and Results
We used data on 490,852 participants from the UK Biobank, with linkage to national
mortality data between 2006 and 2016. Using Cox regression, we calculated hazard ratios
(HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) for all-cause, cardiovascular and cancer
mortality within body mass index categories in people with and without diabetes adjusting
for potential confounders. 24,789 (5.0%) participants reported having diabetes at
baseline. Over a median follow-up of 6.9 years, 13,896 participants died, of which
1800 had diabetes. Compared with normal body mass index (18.5–24.9 kg/m2), mortality risk in the overweight group (25.0–29.9 kg/m2) was 33% lower in people with diabetes (HR 0.67, 95%CI 0.62–0.73) and 12% lower in
participants without (HR 0.88, 95%CI 0.85–0.90). For class I obesity (30.0–34.9 kg/m2), mortality risk was 35% lower in participants with diabetes (HR 0.65, 95%CI 0.59–0.71)
and 5% lower in participants without (HR 0.95, 95%CI 0.91–0.99). For class III obesity
(≥40 kg/m2), there was a 10% non-significant lower mortality risk compared to normal body mass
index in people with diabetes (HR 0.90, 95%CI 0.77–1.05); in contrast, the risk was
29% higher in people without diabetes (HR 1.29, 95%CI 1.13–1.45). Similar patterns
were observed for cardiovascular mortality but not for cancer mortality.
Conclusion
The impact of obesity on the risk of mortality was dependent on the presence of diabetes:
for the same level of obesity, mortality risk was higher in people without diabetes
compared to those with diabetes.
Keywords
Abbreviations:
CRF (cardiorespiratory fitness), HR (hazard ratio), MET (metabolic equivalent), NHS (National Health Service)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: July 27, 2018
Accepted:
July 20,
2018
Received in revised form:
July 11,
2018
Received:
May 29,
2018
Handling Editor: Francesco CappuccioIdentification
Copyright
© 2018 The Italian Society of Diabetology, the Italian Society for the Study of Atherosclerosis, the Italian Society of Human Nutrition, and the Department of Clinical Medicine and Surgery, Federico II University. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
