Type 2 diabetes directly linked to BMI

Research emerging from the American Diabetes Association’s meeting in San Diego has revealed that the likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes (T2D) increases proportionately with an increase in body mass index (BMI).

In the study, there was a focus on the association between long-term risk in young people of developing T2D as a result of rising rates of obesity. There had previously been awareness that there was a relationship between BMI and diabetes but not in cases of young people with severe degrees of obesity.

The research focused on a particularly at risk group, American Indian Youths, and contained a study sample of 2,728 children without diabetes age 5-9 alongside an overlapping group of 4,317 children aged 10-17.

Each individual was following up to the age of 45 or until the onset of T2D. Unsurprisingly, children who were at least 40% above the BMI point of being defined as obese were 12 times the incidence of T2D by 45, compared with an average BMI.

"We had previously found BMI in youth to be a strong predictor of type 2 diabetes, but we had not examined diabetes incidence rates in those with the severe degree of obesity that is prevalent today. We did not know if diabetes incidence rates among the obese plateaued among those with extremely high BMI," said study author Madhumita Sinha, Staff Clinician at the National Institutes of Health.

Even though the research points towards an outcome that could have been predicted, it proves that weight early in life holds a significant risk factor for later developing T2D – particularly when weight levels have extreme.

The research only furthers that call for stricter dietary advice to be provided to families to combat rising levels of obesity and, therefore, increased levels of T2D. A study found that incidence of T2D in young people was increasing at a rate of 4.8% during the period 2002 to 2012.