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Insulin resistance and weight gain in postmenopausal women of diverse ethnic groups

International Journal of Obesity volume 28, pages 1039–1047 (2004)Cite this article

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to examine the influence of insulin resistance on weight change in postmenopausal women of various ethnic groups.

SUBJECTS: Data were obtained from 3389 women (60% White, 20% Black, 12% Hispanic, and 8% Asian/Pacific Islander), ages 50–79, enrolled in either the Women's Health Initiative Clinical trial or Observational Study, whose blood samples were selected randomly from the full cohort of 161 809 women for analyses.

MEASUREMENTS: Glucose, insulin, and lipids were measured on fasting serum samples drawn at baseline and after 3 y of follow-up. Weight, height, waist circumference, and blood pressure were measured. Physical activity and energy intake were assessed via questionnaire. Insulin resistance was estimated using the HOMA (homeostasis model) calculation.

RESULTS: Average age was 62 y, average BMI (body mass index) was 27.4 kg/m2, and average weight change was a gain of 0.4 kg in 3 y. In a multivariate analysis, insulin resistance and insulin concentrations were independent predictors of increases in weight in White women (P=0.002 and 0.004, respectively) and in the combined group (P=0.027 and 0.039). For the whole group, after adjustment for other covariates, those in the highest quartile of insulin resistance gained 0.4 kg in 3 y, whereas those in the lowest quartile lost 0.06 kg. Similar trends were found for insulin resistance and weight gain in Hispanic and Asian/Pacific Islander women, but they did not reach statistical significance. In Black women, no relation was seen between either insulin or insulin resistance and weight change. A significant interaction between obesity and insulin resistance was observed (P=0.002 for White women and 0.032 for the whole group), so that there is weight gain with increasing insulin resistance in the leaner women, but weight loss with increasing insulin resistance in the most obese.

CONCLUSION: Insulin resistance appears to be a predictor of weight gain in postmenopausal women, except for the most obese women. The effect is more pronounced in women who have a lower BMI, and the effect was not seen in the Black women who as a group had a higher BMI.

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Acknowledgements

The Women's Health Initiative program is funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

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Author notes

  1. C Allen: Deceased

Authors and Affiliations

  1. MedStar Research Institute, Washington, DC, USA

    B V Howard & M Passaro

  2. Howard University, Washington, DC, USA

    L Adams-Campbell

  3. University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA

    C Allen

  4. Rush-Presbyterian St. Luke's Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USA

    H Black

  5. Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, USA

    R J Rodabough

  6. Women's Health Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, USA

    B L Rodriguez

  7. Women's Health Initiative, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, NJ, USA

    M Safford

  8. Women's Health Initiative, Kaiser Center for Health Research, Portland, OR, USA

    V J Stevens

  9. Women's Health Initiative, Southeast Region, Winston-Salem, NC, USA

    L E Wagenknecht

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Correspondence to B V Howard.

Appendix A: Long list of WHI investigators

Appendix A: Long list of WHI investigators

Program Office: (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Bethesda, MD)

Barbara Alving, Jacques Rossouw, Linda Pottern, Shari Ludlam, Joan McGowan.

Clinical Coordinating Center: (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA) Ross Prentice, Garnet Anderson, Andrea LaCroix, Ruth Patterson, Anne McTiernan, Barbara Cochrane, Julie Hunt, Lesley Tinker, Charles Kooperberg, Martin McIntosh, C. Y. Wang, Chu Chen, Deborah Bowen, Alan Kristal, Janet Stanford, Nicole Urban, Noel Weiss, Emily White; (Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC) Sally Shumaker, Pentti Rautaharju, Ronald Prineas, Michelle Naughton; (Medical Research Labs, Highland Heights, KY) Evan Stein, Peter Laskarzewski (University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, CA) Steven Cummings, Michael Nevitt, Maurice Dockrell (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN) Lisa Harnack; (McKesson BioServices, Rockville, MD) Frank Cammarata, Steve Lindenfelser (University of Washington, Seattle, WA) Bruce Psaty, Susan Heckbert.

Clinical Centers: (Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY) Sylvia Wassertheil-Smoller, William Frishman, Judith Wylie-Rosett, David Barad, Ruth Freeman; (Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX) Jennifer Hays, Ronald Young, Jill Anderson, Sandy Lithgow, Paul Bray; (Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA) JoAnn Manson, Julie Buring, J. Michael Gaziano, Kathryn Rexrode, Claudia Chae; (Brown University, Providence, RI) Annlouise R. Assaf, Carol Wheeler, Charles Eaton, Michelle Cyr; (Emory University, Atlanta, GA) Lawrence Phillips, Margaret Pedersen, Ora Strickland, Margaret Huber, Vivian Porter; (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA) Shirley A.A. Beresford, Vicky M. Taylor, Nancy F. Woods, Maureen Henderson, Mark Kestin; (George Washington University, Washington, DC) Judith Hsia, Nancy Gaba, Joao Ascensao; (Harbor-UCLA Research and Education Institute, Torrance, CA) Rowan Chlebowski, Robert Detrano, Anita Nelson, James Heiner, John Marshall; (Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, Portland, OR) Cheryl Ritenbaugh, Barbara Valanis, Patricia Elmer, Victor Stevens, Njeri Karanja; (Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, Oakland, CA) Bette Caan, Stephen Sidney, Geri Bailey Jane Hirata; (Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI) Jane Morley Kotchen, Vanessa Barnabei, Theodore A. Kotchen, Mary Ann C. Gilligan, Joan Neuner; (MedStar Research Institute/Howard University, Washington, DC) Barbara V. Howard, Lucile Adams-Campbell, Maureen Passaro, Monique Rainford, Tanya Agurs-Collins; (Northwestern University, Chicago/Evanston, IL) Linda Van Horn, Philip Greenland, Janardan Khandekar, Kiang Liu, Carol Rosenberg; (Rush-Presbyterian St. Luke's Medical Center, Chicago, IL) Henry Black, Lynda Powell, Ellen Mason; (Stanford Center for Research in Disease Prevention, Stanford University, Stanford, CA) Marcia L. Stefanick, Mark A. Hlatky, Bertha Chen, Randall S. Stafford, Linda C. Giudice; (State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY) Dorothy Lane, Iris Granek, William Lawson, Gabriel San Roman, Catherine Messina; (The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH) Rebecca Jackson, Randall Harris, Electra Paskett, W. Jerry Mysiw, Michael Blumenfeld; (University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL) Cora E. Lewis, Albert Oberman, James M. Shikany, Monika Safford, Brian K. Britt; (University of Arizona, Tucson/Phoenix, AZ) Tamsen Bassford, John Mattox, Marcia Ko, Timothy Lohman; (University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY) Jean Wactawski-Wende, Maurizio Trevisan, Ellen Smit, Susan Graham, June Chang; (University of California at Davis, Sacramento, CA) John Robbins, S. Yasmeen, Karen Lindfors, Judith Stern; (University of California at Irvine, Orange, CA) Allan Hubbell, Gail Frank, Nathan Wong, Nancy Greep, Bradley Monk; (University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA) Howard Judd, David Heber, Robert Elashoff; (University of California at San Diego, LaJolla/Chula Vista, CA) Robert D. Langer, Michael H. Criqui, Gregory T. Talavera, Cedric F. Garland, R. Elaine Hanson; (University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH) Margery Gass, Suzanne Wernke, Nelson Watts; (University of Florida, Gainesville/Jacksonville, FL) Marian Limacher, Michael Perri, Andrew Kaunitz, R. Stan Williams, Yvonne Brinson; (University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI) David Curb, Helen Petrovitch, Beatriz Rodriguez, Kamal Masaki, Santosh Sharma; (University of Iowa, Iowa City/Davenport, IA) Robert Wallace, James Torner, Susan Johnson, Linda Snetselaar, Bradley VanVoorhis; (University of Massachusetts/Fallon Clinic, Worcester, MA) Judith Ockene, Milagros Rosal, Ira Ockene, Robert Yood, Patricia Aronson; (University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, NJ) Norman Lasser, Bali Singh, Vera Lasser, John Kostis; (University of Miami, Miami, FL) Mary Jo O'Sullivan, Linda Parker, R. Estape, Diann Fernandez; (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN) Karen L. Margolis, Richard H. Grimm, Donald B. Hunninghake, June LaValleur, Sarah Kempainen; (University of Nevada, Reno, NV) Robert Brunner, William Graettinger, Vicki Oujevolk; (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC) Gerardo Heiss, Pamela Haines, David Ontjes, Carla Sueta, Ellen Wells; (University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA) Lewis Kuller, Jane Cauley, N. Carole Milas; (University of Tennessee, Memphis, TN) Karen C. Johnson, Suzanne Satterfield, Raymond W. Ke, Jere Vile, Fran Tylavsky; (University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, TX) Robert Brzyski, Robert Schenken, Jose Trabal, Mercedes Rodriguez-Sifuentes, Charles Mouton; (University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI) Gloria Sarto, Douglas Laube, Patrick McBride, Julie Mares-Perlman, Barbara Loevinger; (Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC) Denise Bonds, Greg Burke, Robin Crouse, Lynne Parsons, Mara Vitolins; (Wayne State University School of Medicine/Hutzel Hospital, Detroit, MI) Susan Hendrix, Michael Simon, Gene McNeeley, Pamela Gordon, Paul Makela.

Former WHI Investigators: Catherine Allen (University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI) *, Sandy Dougherty* (University of Nevada, Reno, NV), Richard Carleton*(Brown University, Providence, RI).

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Howard, B., Adams-Campbell, L., Allen, C. et al. Insulin resistance and weight gain in postmenopausal women of diverse ethnic groups. Int J Obes 28, 1039–1047 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0802645

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