Abstract

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a major global health problem. The present study examines the relationship between the metabolic, anthropometric and Finnish risk score (FINDRISC) among normal and pre-diabetic adults. Subjects (n = 1319, aged above 18 years) from the Qatari population were classified into two groups based on their hemoglobin A_1c (HbA_1c) measurements (non-diabetic A_1c<5.6% and pre-diabetic 5.6% ≤ A_1c ≤ 6.4%) were examined for their anthropometric (height, weight and waist circumference), metabolic [fat, fat free mass (FFM), muscle mass (MM), total body water (TBW), bone mass, degree of obesity, basal metabolic rate (BMR), body mass index (BMI), metabolic age, visceral fat rating, systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), total cholesterol (Total-C), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), triglycerides (TG), fasting / random plasma glucose (FPG / RPG), HbA_1c and vitamin D (VitD)] and FINDRISC. Means and frequencies were determined in aggregate and by subgroups for all variables and correlations between categorical variables were tested to estimate the association between the anthropometric and metabolic risk factors with the FINDRISC. A percentage of 74.8% (n = 987) of the study population aged below 45 years old and their overall BMI was 28.8±5.2kg/m² (overweight). Pre-diabetic subgroup have shown a statistically higher FINDRISC compared to their non-diabetic counterparts (11.2±4.1 vs. 9.8±4, p<0.001). The FINDRISC was significantly and directly correlated with the BMI, HbA_1c and FPG. However, HbA_1c was correlated directly with BMI, SBP, DBP, FPG / RPG and indirectly with the levels of HDL. This study demonstrates an apparent relationship between the HbA_1c and FINDRISC score. Pursuing further research on this association may permit using HbA_1c with the FINDRISC in predicting the risk of T2DM to be a better tool rather than using the current FPG/RPG, OGTT methods.

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