Glucose intolerance and cardiovascular risk factors in Tehran urban population:" Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study"

Glucose intolerance, hypertension, and obesity are important risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. Association of WHR, BMI, and blood pressure with glucose tolerance status was assessed in this study. Of 15000 urban individuals, 3-69 years old, who have been chosen by cluster random sampling in cross-sectional phase of a longitudinal study in east of Tehran, 2886 men and 4013 women were between 30 to 69 years of age. They underwent a 2-h oral glucose tolerance test. Diabetes mellitus (DM) and impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) were defined using WHO criteria. Blood pressure, weight, height, and hip and waist circumferences were measured according to standard protocols, and BMI and WHR were calculated. 911(13.2%) had IGT and 372(5.4%) had diabetes. Obesity (BMI30 kg/m2) was more common in DM and IGT than healthy individuals (45.1% and 39.1% vs 22.9%, respectively, P<0.001). There was no significant difference between the prevalences of overweight (250.8 in females and WHR>0.95 in males) was present in 82.7, 75.6 and 53.7% of diabetics, IGT, and normal subjects (P<0.001). In forward stepwise logistic regression adjusted for age and sex, the following variables, in order of entering the model, were significantly associated with DM: age OR=4.4 (P<0.001) Truncal obesity OR=1.8 (P<0.001) obesity OR=3 (P<0.001) and overweight OR=2 (P<0.001). Prevalence of hypertension (systolic BP  140 or diastolic BP90 mm/Hg or antihypertensive drug consumption) in DM, IGT, and healthy subjects were 51.9, 39.5, and 18.8%, respectively (P<0.001) and when adjusted for age, sex, BMI, and WHR, all types of glucose disorders were significantly associated with hypertension: IGT OR=1.8 (P<0.001) and DM OR=2.4 (P<0.001). Hypertension, obesity, and high WHR are more prevalent in diabetes and IGT than in normal population. Furthermore, truncal obesity is associated more often with glucose intolerance than with generalized obesity.