Obesity and hypertension; non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus patients

ABSTRACT

To assess the associations of obesity and hypertension in diabetics and non-diabetics. A total of 430 Saudi patients suffering from non-insulin-dependent [type 2] diabetes mellitus comprising of 205[48%] males and 225[52%] females were studied. Height and weight were measured for calculating body mass index [BMI]. The type 2 diabetics and non-diabetic individuals were investigated separately to determine the prevalence of obesity and overweight. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure was recorded using the standard method in a sitting position. The patients were diagnosed as diabetics and hypertensive on the criteria of the World Health Organization. The prevalence of obesity was 16.7% and 22.9%, and overweight was 27.1% and 22.9% in the total men and women studied in healthy non-diabetics; while the prevalence of obesity was 26.8% and 42.7%, and overweight was 45.8 and 38.2% in the total men and women, in the diabetics respectively. In diabetic subjects, glycemic status [HbA[1c]] and BMI had coefficient of correlation between 26 matched pairs as r= 0.36, but not impressive. In over-all population, irrespective of gender, the diabetic subjects had higher obesity/overweight [ob/ow] ratio value [0.84] than non-diabetics [0.79].The prevalence of HT in non-diabetic group was 4.42% in males compared to 2.1% in females, while in the diabetic group the prevalence of HT was 24.39% in males and 41.33% in females, respectively. Prevalence of HT in diabetics was higher in females than males, in contrast to non-diabetics. Our study shows that obesity and hypertension are both contributing factors in the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus; and the measures should be adopted for control of obesity and hypertension to reduce the cause of diabetes mellitus