Prevalence of obesity in a Canarian community.: Association with type 2 diabetes mellitus:: the Guia Study

Objective: We sought to estimate the prevalence of obesity and central obesity, and their association with type 2 diabetes mellitus in the Canarian community of Guia. Design and setting: Population-based study. Subjects: A random sample of 691 subjects over 30 y old (stratified by age and sex) was studied. Data and measures: Age, sex, family history of diabetes and medication use were obtained, height, weight and waist circumference were measured and standard oral glucose tolerance tests were performed Results: The prevalences of obesity/central obesity were 36.5%/66.5% (women) and 23.6%/32.0% (men). The prevalence of diabetes was 21.0% (women) and 18.4% (men). These rank among the highest in Europe. Bivariate analyses show a strong association of both obesity and central obesity with diabetes mellitus (P<0.001), but in a multivariate model, waist circumference (P<0.001) but not body mass index (P=0.212) was retained as an independent predictor of diabetes. Conclusion: The prevalences of obesity, central obesity and diabetes in our community are extremely high, and central obesity is a better predictor of diabetes than obesity.