Women develop diabetes at higher BMIs than men

Excerpt

To the Editor: In their analysis of the British Regional Heart Study and the British Women´s Heart Health Study, Wannamethee and colleagues report that women develop diabetes at higher BMIs than men [1]. This is a well-recognised finding. In 1988 the UK Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS) demonstrated, in 1,857 Caucasian, Afro-Caribbean and Asian patients, that men with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes were significantly less obese than their female counterparts, being 120.8 ± 19.7% vs 140.9 ± 29.1% (mean ± SD) of ideal body weight, respectively [2]. This result was subsequently confirmed by a study using a US database, which also showed that BMI was higher for women with newly diagnosed diabetes than for men, although this difference declined with age [3]. …