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Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
The unprecedented increase in overweight and obesity in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) has led to an alarming rise in diabetes in these regions. Of the estimated 463 million people with diabetes worldwide, 79% live in LMICs.
Until now, however, there were scant empirical data to guide clinicians and health systems in determining which individuals should be screened for diabetes based on body mass index (BMI). "There are guidelines from the World Health Organization that recommend screening individuals age 40 and older with a BMI of 25 kg/m2 and above for diabetes," says Jennifer Manne-Goehler, MD, ScD, faculty member at the Medical Practice Evaluation Center at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). "But it's long been suspected that these BMI and age thresholds may not be optimal for diabetes screening in all regions of the world. Our goal was to estimate the relationship between BMI and diabetes risk across many low- and middle-income countries to help resource-strapped health systems devise the most effective screening programs for their populations," says Manne-Goehler, senior author of a new study published in The Lancet.
Until now, however, there were scant empirical data to guide clinicians and health systems in determining which individuals should be screened for diabetes based on body mass index (BMI). "There are guidelines from the World Health Organization that recommend screening individuals age 40 and older with a BMI of 25 kg/m2 and above for diabetes," says Jennifer Manne-Goehler, MD, ScD, faculty member at the Medical Practice Evaluation Center at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). "But it's long been suspected that these BMI and age thresholds may not be optimal for diabetes screening in all regions of the world. Our goal was to estimate the relationship between BMI and diabetes risk across many low- and middle-income countries to help resource-strapped health systems devise the most effective screening programs for their populations," says Manne-Goehler, senior author of a new study published in The Lancet.
Body mass index as a risk factor for diabetes varies throughout the world
There are substantial differences among low- and middle-income countries in the association between BMI and diabetes risk. Individual countries can optimize diabetes screening by tailoring guidelines to their specific population's risk threshold for BMI, age and gender. In some parts of the...
www.sciencedaily.com