Short Adult Stature Predicts Impaired β-Cell Function, Insulin Resistance, Glycemia, and Type 2 Diabetes in Finnish Men.

Abstract

Recent studies have highlighted the role of height in complex diseases, but conflicting information has been reported on height as a predictor of changes in glycemia and risk of type 2 diabetes. Our aim was to investigate the association of height with insulin sensitivity, insulin secretion, glycemia, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in a large prospective population-based study. The study included 8746 Finnish men (mean ± standard deviation, age 57.2 ± 7.1 years, body mass index, 26.8 ± 3.8 kg/m2) selected from a population-based Metabolic Syndrome in Men (METSIM) study. The study was conducted at Kuopio University Hospital and University of Eastern Finland. The participants were nondiabetic at the recruitment, and 5401 subjects have participated in the follow-up study. During the follow-up, a total of 693 subjects converted to type 2 diabetes and 351 were diagnosed with a new CVD event during the follow-up. The main outcome measures were incidence of type 2 diabetes and CVD. Height measured at baseline was significantly associated with lower levels of 2-hour glucose in an oral glucose tolerance test, an increase in insulin secretion, a decrease in the risk of type 2 diabetes [hazard ratio (HR) = 0.83(confidence interval [CI] 0.77 to 0.90)] and CVD [HR = 0.75(CI 0.67 to 0.83)] during the follow-up. Short stature is associated with unfavorable changes in glucose metabolism and predicts an increase in the risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular events.