The relationship between type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), insulin resistance and central obesity is not uniformly applicable to populations worldwide. In this Comment, we discuss the challenge of establishing waist circumference thresholds to predict T2DM in Africa.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Relevant articles
Open Access articles citing this article.
-
Associations of body shapes with insulin resistance and cardiometabolic risk in middle-aged and elderly Chinese
Nutrition & Metabolism Open Access 07 December 2021
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Alberti, K. G. et al. Harmonizing the metabolic syndrome: a joint interim statement of the International Diabetes Federation Task Force on Epidemiology and Prevention; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; American Heart Association; World Heart Federation; International Atherosclerosis Society; and International Association for the Study of Obesity. Circulation 120, 1640–1645 (2009).
Kabakambira, J. D. et al. Do current guidelines for waist circumference apply to black Africans? Prediction of insulin resistance by waist circumference among Africans living in America. BMJ Global Health 3, e001057 (2018).
Staimez, L. R. et al. Tale of two Indians: heterogeneity in type 2 diabetes pathophysiology. Diabetes Metab. Res. Rev. https://doi.org/10.1002/dmrr.3192 (2019).
Adeyemo, A. A. et al. ZRANB3 is an African-specific type 2 diabetes locus associated with beta-cell mass and insulin response. Nat. Commun. 10, 3195 (2019).
Ekoru, K. et al. Deriving an optimal threshold of waist circumference for detecting cardiometabolic risk in sub-Saharan Africa. Int. J. Obes. 42, 487–494 (2017).
Acknowledgements
The authors thank A. F. Hobabagabo, T. Hormenu, L. Malan and E. M. Shoup for their insightful comments. A.E.S. is supported by the intramural programs of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney diseases (NIDDK) and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD). M.H.B. is supported by the NIH Clinical Center.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sumner, A.E., Bagheri, M.H. Identifying the waist circumference of risk in people of African descent. Nat Rev Endocrinol 16, 1–3 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41574-019-0289-0
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41574-019-0289-0
This article is cited by
-
Waist circumference and dysglycaemia: new insights and additional questions, but do not miss the opportunity to measure it!
Internal and Emergency Medicine (2022)
-
Associations of body shapes with insulin resistance and cardiometabolic risk in middle-aged and elderly Chinese
Nutrition & Metabolism (2021)