Overview
- A Curtin University analysis published Tuesday in Diabetes Care used nearly 480,000 diabetes-free UK Biobank participants and found people with both excess body fat and poor muscle health were more than 3.5 times as likely to develop type 2 diabetes.
- The study measured incidence over more than 14 years and reported that about 15% of people with sarcopenic obesity developed type 2 diabetes within 10 years compared with roughly 11% with obesity alone and about 3% with neither condition.
- Researchers quantified that sarcopenic obesity carried a 19% higher diabetes risk than obesity alone and a 91% higher risk than sarcopenia alone.
- The association was strongest for women and for adults under 60, findings that the authors say could help clinicians better identify high-risk patients early.
- Study authors and clinicians recommend promoting muscle-preserving activity and adding muscle-mass or strength tests to routine risk checks but note the results are from observational data and do not by themselves prove causation.