Metabolic syndrome factors as important accelerators for type 2 diabetes in the Anglo-Celtic but not in the Chinese population
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This cross-sectional study was aimed to investigate to what extent the metabolic syndrome and its individual components are accelerators associated with earlier onset of type 2 diabetes in Anglo-Celtic and Chinese populations. To this end, 1016 Australian Anglo-Celtic and 1514 Beijing Chinese patients with recent-onset diabetes were evaluated over a 12-year period. In the Anglo-Celtic group, there was a high prevalence of metabolic syndrome in early-onset disease along with a striking inverse relationship of body mass index (BMI) with age of presentation, that was not further increased with increasing age at presentation. For every increase in BMI, there was a significant reduction in the age of presentation by 0.5 years, with younger groups having a higher prevalence of insulin resistance, elevated triglycerides and low HDL cholesterol. In the Chinese group, however, age of presentation was not related to BMI, insulin resistance, triglycerides, or HDL cholesterol. In conclusion, factors associated with the metabolic syndrome appear to be important accelerators for type 2 diabetes in an Anglo-Celtic but not in a Chinese population. These findings suggest that earlier onset of pancreatic beta-cell deficiency is a more important accelerator of diabetes presentation in Chinese. Therefore, more ethnic-specific strategies in diabetes prevention appear warranted.
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