The association of waist circumference with glycaemic control in diabetic patients in an Asian population. [Abstract]

Conference abstract:
Objectives: The aim of the study was to explore the association of waist circumference with glycaemic control in Malaysian patients with type 2 diabetes.
Methods: We utilised data of type 2 diabetes patients followed up in Malaysian public sector primary care clinics contained in the National Diabetes Registry in the year 2012. The variable of interest was poor glycaemic control, defined as HbA1c≥ 6.5%. Multiple logistic regression was used to explore the association between glycaemic control and waist circumference, which was adjusted for age, sex, duration of diabetes, systolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, use of insulin and other medications.
Results: A total of 98,825 patients with type 2 diabetes were included in the study. The mean age of patients was 59.9 years (SD: 10.9) and 38.9% were males. The mean duration of diabetes was 6.8 years (SD: 5.0) and 76.2% of patients had HbA1c ≥ 6.5%. The mean waist circumference was 94.0 cm (SD: 11.8) for male and 90.7 cm (SD: 11.8) for female; while 78.3% of the patients had waist circumference above the cut-off (≥ 90 cm for men and ≥ 80 cm for women). Larger waist circumference was found to be significantly associated with HbA1c≥ 6.5% (adj. OR 1.009; p< 0.001; 95% CI: 1.007–1.011) after adjusting for confounding factors.
Conclusions: Analysis showed that glycaemic control was poorer in patients with higher waist circumference than in patients with lower waist circumference.