Body mass index and waist circumference in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients attending a diabetes clinic

Introduction: Despite the association of obesity with poorer glycemic control and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality less attention has been given to its management relative to the attainment of glycemic targets. The objective of this study was to determine the presence of general and central obesity in patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) for duration of one year or more. Methods: The data of 446 type 2 DM patients attending a diabetes clinic of a university teaching hospital in Southern India was recorded. The demographic and clinical data of all patients were recorded. Extracted data were anonymised before this analysis. BMI ≥25 and waist circumference ≥ 90 cm in males and 80 cm in females was taken as an indicator of obesity. Statistical analysis was performed using t-test for continuous variables and chi square test for categorical variables. Significance was defined as p<0.05 (two tailed). Results: The percentage of diabetics with general obesity was 48.9% while 68.1% had visceral obesity.44.4% patients had raised BMI and waist circumference, 26.7% had normal BMI and waist circumference, 24.7% had increased waist circumference only and 4.3% had increased BMI alone. 86.6% of females had a waist circumference above the cut off value as compared to 54.7% males (p<0.001).Similarly,59.9% females had raised BMI compared to 40.9% in males (p<0.001).Conclusion:The results suggest that a larger percentage of type 2 diabetics have central obesity as compared to general obesity and both types of obesity was higher in females.The high prevalence of obesity in this clinical population of diabetes suggests that structured weight reduction should be an integral part of attainment of glycemic targets