Search

Aims: To examine whether the development of obesity with age was different for individuals with and without a spouse with diabetes. Methods: We analysed data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing [n= 7123, median (interquartile range) age 59 (53–67) years, 51% men], which included four clinical examination waves between 1998 and 2012. The main exposure was having a spouse with diabetes. Outcomes of interest were BMI and waist circumference. We fitted quadratic age‐related trajectories using mixed‐effect models stratified by sex and adjusted for education, smoking and the corresponding interaction terms between age and spousal diabetes status. Results: The baseline spousal diabetes prevalence was 4.4%. Men with a wife with diabetes experienced a steeper increase in BMI (1.6 kg/m2) between ages 50 to 65 years than men with a wife without diabetes (0.9 kg/m2). Women with a husband with diabetes had a similarly shaped BMI trajectory to women with a husband without diabetes, but their average BMI levels were higher between ages 55 and 65 years. Waist circumference trajectories showed a similar shape by spousal diabetes status for men and women, although individuals with a spouse with diabetes had higher waist circumference values throughout follow‐up. Conclusions: We found a positive association between spousal diabetes status and obesity development, which differed by sex among middle‐aged individuals. Evidence from couple‐based interventions is needed to test whether the latter could improve the current individual‐focused public health strategies for obesity prevention. What's new?: The risk of becoming obese is increased among people whose spouses are obese; however, less is known about the BMI trajectories in individuals after their spouse is diagnosed with diabetes.We used prospective data to examine age‐related trajectories of obesity indicators by spousal diabetes status. Having a spouse with diabetes was associated with higher levels of obesity during middle and late adulthood in both sexes.We found a positive association between spousal diabetes status and obesity development, which differed by sex among middle‐aged individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabet. Med. 27, 906–910 (2010) Aims Glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) has been proposed as an alternative to the oral glucose tolerance test for diagnosing diabetes. We compared the cardiovascular risk profile of individuals identified by these two alternative methods. Methods We assessed the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in individuals with undiagnosed diabetes according to the World Health Organization classification or by the newly proposed HbA1c level ≥ 6.5% among 6258 participants of the Danish Inter99 study. Receiver operating curve analysis assessed the ability of fasting: 2-h plasma glucose and HbA1c to distinguish between individuals at high and low risk of ischemic heart disease, predicted by the PRECARD program. Results Prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes was 4.1% [95% confidence interval (CI) 3.7–4.7%] by the current oral glucose tolerance test definition, whereas 6.6% (95% CI 6.0–7.2%) had diabetes by HbA1c levels. HbA1c-defined individuals were relatively older with higher proportions of men, smokers, lipid abnormalities and macro-albuminuria, but they were leaner and had lower blood pressure. HbA1c was better than fasting- and 2-h plasma glucose at distinguishing between individuals of high and low predicted risk of ischaemic heart disease; however, the difference between HbA1c and fasting- and 2-h plasma glucose was not statistically significant. Conclusions Compared with the current oral glucose tolerance test definition, more individuals were classified as having diabetes based on the HbA1c criteria. This group had as unfavourable a risk profile as those identified by the oral glucose tolerance test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]