Bariatric residents may be six times as likely to develop type 2 diabetes as their normal-weight peers, according to Danish researchers.
Investigators analyzed data from over 9,500 men and women in a Danish cohort survey.
The results showed that obesity was a far greater determinant of developing type 2 diabetes than unfavorable lifestyle or genetics. The highest genetic risk group had two times the chance of developing the disease when compared with the lowest risk group. Unfavorable lifestyle was associated with a 20% relative increased risk of developing the disease.
“The effect of obesity on type 2 diabetes risk is dominant over other risk factors, highlighting the importance of weight management in type 2 diabetes prevention,” the authors concluded.
Favorable lifestyle was defined as having three of four factors: no smoking, moderate alcohol consumption, regular physical activity and a healthy diet. An unfavorable lifestyle was defined as having one or fewer of those factors.
The research was presented at this week’s 2019 Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Barcelona.
