posted on 2015-11-10, 13:58authored byDaniel J. Cuthbertson, Joshua A. Bell, S.Y. Ng, Graham J. Kemp, Mika Kivimaki, Mark Hamer
Aim
Obesity is a well-established risk factor for developing Type 2 diabetes. Evidence suggests that sarcopenia, the age-related decline in muscle mass and strength, may exacerbate diabetes risk in obese individuals. The aim of this study was to determine the combined effect of obesity and low muscle strength, dynapenia, on the risk of incident Type 2 diabetes in older adults.
Methods
Participants were 5953 (1670 obese) men and women from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing without known Type 2 diabetes at baseline and for whom handgrip strength, biochemical and other clinical data were collected. A diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes was recorded from self-reported physician diagnosis over 6 years.
Results
For each unit increase in grip strength, there was a reduction in diabetes risk (age and sex, BMI adjusted HR; 0.98; 95% CI 0.96–0.99). The risk of Type 2 diabetes was elevated in all obese participants, but was greatest in those with low handgrip strength (HR = 4.93, 95% CI 2.85, 8.53) compared with non-obese individuals with high handgrip strength. Eleven per cent of the sample met the threshold for weakness (handgrip strength: men < 26 kg; women < 16 kg) that was associated with elevated Type 2 diabetes risk in obese (HR = 3.57, 95% CI 2.04, 6.24) but not in non-obese (HR = 0.86, 95% CI, 0.44, 1.68) compared with normal/non-obese participants.
Conclusion
Dynapenic obesity, determined by high BMI and low handgrip strength, is associated with increased risk of incident Type 2 diabetes in older people.
Funding
Funding for ELSA is provided by the National Institute on Aging in the United States (grants
2RO1AG7644-01A1 and 2RO1AG017644) and a consortium of UK government departments
coordinated by the Office for National Statistics. JAB is supported by an Economic and
Social Research Council (ESRC) studentship, MK by the Medical Research Council
(K013351) and the Economic and Social Research Council, MH by the British Heart
Foundation (RE/10/005/28296), and GJK and DJC by the Medical Research Council and
Arthritis Research UK (MR/ K006312/1) as part of the MRC – Arthritis Research UK Centre
for Integrated Research into Musculoskeletal Ageing (CIMA).
History
School
Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences
Published in
Diabetic Medicine
Citation
CUTHBERTSON, D.J. ... et al, 2015. Dynapenic obesity and the risk of incident type 2 diabetes: the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Diabetic Medicine, 33 (8), pp. 1052-1059.
This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Publication date
2015
Notes
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: CUTHBERTSON, D.J. ... et al, 2015. Dynapenic obesity and the risk of incident type 2 diabetes: the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Diabetic Medicine, 33 (8), pp. 1052-1059., which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/dme.12991. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.