Yoon et al. sought to examine the independent association between indicators of obesity and diabetes such as waist circumference, body mass index (BMI), and adiponectin levels as well as the combined effect of those indicators on diabetes in a Korean population of 4,459 individuals. The paper supports previous studies that demonstrated that low adiponectin levels increased risk of diabetes. This association was independent of age, BMI, waist circumference, and other lifestyle factors. Further adjustment for HDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels attenuated this association in women but not in men. Moreover, when subjects were classified into tertiles of waist circumference, BMI, and adiponectin, the authors found that diabetes risk increased in the combined group with the lowest tertile of adiponectin and the highest tertile of waist circumference or BMI. These results suggest that adiponectin is an independent risk factor for diabetes and that the association is partly modified by HDL and triglyceride levels. The findings also suggest that using waist circumference, BMI, and adiponectin levels in conjunction may facilitate the identification of subjects at greater risk of diabetes.
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