Jo A, et al. - Researchers intended to estimate the value of percent body fat (%BF) with body mass index (BMI) for determining the risk of abnormal blood glucose (ABG) among US adults who were normal weight or overweight. The integration of BMI with %BF possibly led to an improvement in the classification to direct screening and prevention efforts to a group currently considered healthy and avoid penalties and stigmatisation of other groups that were classified as high risk of ABG.

Methods

• The scheme of this research was a cross-sectional study.
• National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1999-2006, was performed by the National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• Eligible candidates included US adults aged 40 and older who have never been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes by a doctor (unweighted n=6,335, weighted n=65,705,694).
• Enrollees were classified into 4 groups: (1) normal weight with normal %BF, (2) normal weight with high %BF, (3) overweight with normal %BF and (4) overweight with high %BF.
• ORs for ABG including pre-diabetes and undiagnosed diabetes (HbA1c ≥5.7%, ≥39 mmol/mol) served as the main outcome.

Results

• As per the data, 64% of population with normal BMI classification had a high %BF.
• Substantially higher prevalence of ABG was reported in normal-weight group with high %BF (13.5%) compared to the overweight group with low %BF (10.5%, P < 0.001).
• The unadjusted model revealed that the OR of ABG was markedly greater in adults at normal BMI with high %BF than with individuals at normal weight with low %BF.
• Greater risks of ABG were unveiled in individuals with normal weight and high %BF (OR 1.55, 95% CI 1.01 to 2.38) and with overweight and low %BF (OR 1.17, 95% CI 0.69 to 1.98, P < 0.05) in an adjusted model controlling for age, sex, race/ethnicity, first-degree-relative diabetes, vigorous-intensity activities and muscle strengthening activities.