Is femur length the key height component in risk prediction of type 2 diabetes among adults?

  1. Jian Liu, MD, PhD (jliu{at}brocku.ca),
  2. Hongzhuan Tan, MD, PhD and
  3. Brian Jeynes, PhD
  1. Brock University
  2. Central South University

    Abstract

    Objective: To examine the diabetic risk association with femur length (FL), standing height (SH) and the height without femur length (HWFL: SH-FL).

    Research design and methods: We used the data from three time periods of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1999-2000, 2001-2002, and 2003-2004) for this cross-sectional analysis and confined the eligible subjects to 6,188 adults aged 20+ years had fasted ≥8 hours and had no missing values of FL and SH. The outcome measure was type 2 diabetes.

    Results: Multivariate logistic regression analyses indicated that the odds of type 2 diabetes per 1-SD value increase in FL, SH, and HWFL were 0.73 (95% CI: 0.61–0.86), 0.91 (0.75–1.10), 1.09 (0.90–1.32) for men, respectively, and 0.82 (0.70–0.97), 0.99 (0.82–1.21), 1.11 (0.93–1.33) for women, respectively.

    Conclusions: Our study supports the hypothesis that the FL may be the key height component in diabetic risk association.

    Footnotes

      • Received August 22, 2008.
      • Accepted January 11, 2009.