Diabetes is the killer, equally so for obese or non-obese people with diabetes, say researchers from the University of Kentucky and the University of Emory, Atlanta, USA. Risk of death from obesity without diabetes is tiny when compared to risk of death with diabetes.
The researchers found that obese people, those with a Body Mass Index (BMI) over 30, who do not have diabetes are not at a greater risk of death than non-obese people without diabetes.
After a large prospective cohort study of 15,408 people, aged 44-66, it was found that people with diabetes are three times as likely to experience organ failure over a three-yer period, when compared to non-diabetics. They found that 5.4% of the people with diabetes died during the three-year period, versus 1.6% of people without diabetes.
You can read about this study in Critical Care, September 25 issue.
Here are some more facts from the study:
— 11.9% of all the people had diabetes (types I or II)
— 52% of those with diabetes were obese
— 24% of those without diabetes were obese
— The higher the BMI, the higher was the prevalence of diabetes
— Organ failure risk was linked to older people, males, diabetes sufferers and those with lower levels of lung function
Morbidly obese patients, those with a BMI over 40, were not examined separately in this study. It is also possible that the risks for non-diabetic obese people need more than a three-year study, said the researchers.
The researchers concluded that the risk of acute organ failure, followed by death, is more closely linked to whether a person has diabetes than whether or not he/she is obese.
The role of body mass index and diabetes in the development of acute organ failure and subsequent mortality in an observational cohort
Katarina Slynkova, David M Mannino, Greg S Martin, Richard S Morehead and Dennis E Doherty
Critical Care 2006, 10:R137 doi:10.1186/cc5051
Click here to see Abstract online
Written by: Christian Nordqvist
Editor: Medical News Today