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Study links muscle health to diabetes risk
Assessing muscle health could help GPs identify patients at high risk earlier, according to the results of a major international study.
Sarcopenic obesity is a likely contributor to a higher risk of a person developing type 2 diabetes.
Muscle health is likely a key factor in a person’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes, according to a new study by Curtin University that researchers say prompts the need to ‘look beyond the scales’ when assessing diabetes risk.
Published in Diabetes Care, the international study of almost 480,000 adults questioned whether diabetes risk is driven primarily by body weight, identifying the presence of sarcopenic obesity as a key driver of higher rates of type 2 diabetes.
Project senior lead Professor Mario Siervo said the results support a broader approach to diabetes prevention by GPs.
‘Healthcare professionals routinely monitor body weight and obesity, but our findings suggest assessing muscle health could help identify people at high risk earlier,’ he said.
Researchers analysed the health data of 479,607 participants of the UK Biobank, all of whom were diabetes-free at the beginning of the study.
Over a median follow-up of 14.2 years, type 2 diabetes developed in 32,948 participants.
Researchers found people with sarcopenic obesity are more than three-and-a-half times as likely to develop type 2 diabetes than people with healthy body composition.
The link was particularly strong among women and adults under the age of 60.
The study also revealed people with sarcopenic obesity are 19% more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than people with obesity alone, and 91% more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than people with sarcopenia alone.
The study’s lead author, Zhongyang Guan, said the study’s findings ‘challenge the common perception diabetes risk is primarily driven by body weight’.
‘People with both excess body fat and low muscle mass had a substantially higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes than those with obesity alone,’ Mr Guan said.
‘This suggests we need to look beyond the number on the scales when assessing diabetes risk, as maintaining muscle strength and muscle mass may be just as important as managing body weight.’
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body weight muscle health sarcopenia sarcopenic obesity type 2 diabetes
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