Abstract

This work assessed the predicting power of different adiposity indices on incident type 2 diabetes mellitus among adult males and females in Uyo Metropolis, Nigeria. A cross-sectional survey of 3500 adult civil servants (1532 men and 1968 women), aged 18 to 60 years, selected by multi-steps random sampling technique were assessed using 2011 Expert Committee Revised criteria for diagnosing diabetes. Overall cases of incident type 2 diabetes mellitus was 180 (5.4%), 73 men (4.8%) and 116 women (5.9%). Result of comparison between diabetic males and females using independent sample t-test showed that body mass index (BMI) and mid arm circumference (MAC) of the two groups did not differ significantly (P= 0.948, 0.648 respectively). Waist circumference (WC) and waist-hip ratio (WHR) of diabetic females were significantly higher than that of the males counterpart (WC: P =0.001 and WHR: P=0.034). Body mass index (BMI) and mid arm circumference (MAC) had equal predicting powers in both sexes with odd ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) as follows: BMI (OR=2.41, C.I=1.728 to 7.01 for male and 2.02, 1.51 to 6.402 for females); MAC (OR =1.624, C.I=1.824 to 7.051 for males and 1.51, 1.62 to 6.59 for females); waist hip ratio (WHR) and waist circumference (WC) were predictive only in women and not in men with OR and C.I as follows: - WHR (OR=2.435, 0.951to 6.413 for women and 0.729, 0.547 to 1.14 for men); WC: (2.834, 1.270 to 5.421 for women and 1.21, 0.695 to 1.845 for men) respectively. All adiposity indices measured were significantly associated with incident type 2 diabetes mellitus in females, with only BMI and MAC showing a consistent significant association in males.

Key words: Adiposity indices, diabetes mellitus, gender, Nigeria.