Increased waist-to-hip ratio is associated with decreased urine glucose excretion in adults with no history of diabetes.

PURPOSE: Promoting urine glucose excretion (UGE) is an attractive approach for the treatment of diabetes. Obesity is associated with increased risk for type 2 diabetes. This study was aimed to investigate the association of waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), a simple measure of abdominal obesity, with UGE determined in subjects without previous history of diabetes.

METHODS: We studied the correlation of WHR with UGE in 7485 participants without previous history of diabetes. All participants were given a standard 75 g glucose solution. Clinical parameters and demographic characteristics were assessed. Multiple linear regression analysis and multivariate logistic regression analysis were performed to determine the association of WHR with UGE.

RESULTS: Individuals with high WHR (H-WHR) exhibited significantly lower UGE compared to those with low WHR (L-WHR), in either normal glucose tolerance group or pre-diabetes group. In newly diagnosed diabetes group, individuals with H-WHR also showed lower UGE than those with L-WHR; however, no statistical significance was observed. After adjustment for potential confounding factors, including age, genders, and blood glucose level, WHR was negatively associated with UGE (β = -250.901, 95% CI: -471.891 to -29.911, p = 0.026). However, no significant association was observed between BMI and UGE. Furthermore, multivariable logistic regression model showed that individuals with H-WHR were more likely to have low UGE (OR = 0.83, 95% CI: 0.71-0.97, p = 0.018).

CONCLUSIONS: Individuals with H-WHR were at risk for decreased UGE. This study suggests that WHR, but not BMI, might be an important determinant of UGE.