medwireNews: Insomnia bestows a degree of risk for type 2 diabetes on patients who already have prediabetes that “is similar to that conferred by traditional risk factors,” according to researchers.
In all, 29.7% of 81,233 people who had prediabetes at study baseline developed insomnia during the subsequent 4.3 years’ average follow-up.
These people were a significant 28% more likely than those without insomnia to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, even after accounting for traditional risk factors including age, BMI, sex, smoking status, and cardiometabolic variables.
The degree of diabetes risk associated with these traditional risk factors was similar to that for insomnia, with, for example, 11%, 29%, and 69% risk increases seen for being overweight, current smoking, and having congestive heart failure, respectively. The largest diabetes risk was seen for severe obesity (BMI ≥40 kg/m2), which conferred a 145% increase relative to a normal BMI.
Gregory Nichols (Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research NW, Portland, Oregon, USA) and co-researchers highlight the potential clinical importance of the findings, noting that insomnia “is potentially modifiable and could be targeted in the diabetes prevention effort unlike unmodifiable risk factors such as age, race, and ethnicity.”
Their findings are published in BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care.
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