Journal of Obesity & Weight Loss Therapy
Open Access

Abstract

Both type 2 diabetes and obesity are increasing worldwide. Obesity has been well documented as a major modifiable risk factor for diabetes. Different surrogate anthropometric measures, such as body mass index, waist circumference, waist to hip ratio and waist to height ratio, have been proposed to define obesity in a clinical setting. These obesity indices have been used alone or frequently integrated into an algorithm to assess an individual?s risk to develop diabetes. The question is thus raised as to which of these obesity indicators is best at predicting type 2 diabetes. Another question often asked is where to set cut-off values for a positive diagnosis since a dichotomous variable is practically useful. Ethnic differences in obesity-diabetes relationship have hindered attempts to propose a universally accepted definition for obesity, but what exactly the ethnic differences are. All these will be addressed in the presentation.

Biography

Qing Qiao, a paediatrician, started to engage herself into research on epidemiology of type 2 diabetes since 1993, and completed her Ph.D in 1996 from Finland. Currently she is a senior research scientist in the AstraZeneca in Sweden, and an adjunct professor in the University of Helsinki, Finland. She has published more than 130 research articles and book chapters on type 2 diabetes, obesity, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular diseases and cancers, and as an editor she recently published a book entitled ?Epidemiology of Type 2 Diabetes?.