Association between high sensitivity C-reactive protein levels in serum and the 5-year-accumulative-risk of diabetes

Abstract

To analyze the association between hs-CRP (high-sensitivity C-reactive protein) levels in serum and the 5-year-accumulative-risk of diabetes in a general population. Participants were from the cohort of Peking University residential community in the Chinese Multi-provincial Cohort Study (CMCS). Two surveys on cardiovascular risk factors and the measurements of serum hs-CRP levels were conducted in 2002 and 2007, respectively. Individuals with incomplete information and those having infectious diseases at baseline were excluded. A total of 1045 participants aged 45 to 74 years and free of diabetes at baseline were included in this analysis. The age-standardized 5-year accumulative incidence rate of diabetes was 8.8% (male: 9.8%, female: 8.2%) and increased significantly with the level of hs-CRP in both women and men (P<0.01). After adjustment for age, hypertension, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, fasting glucose, smoking status and central obesity, people with hs-CRP≥3 mg/L had a 3.30 times higher risk of developing diabetes in men and 2.58 times for women when compared to those with hs-CRP<1 mg/L. The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves of baseline hs-CRP level in predicting the incidence of diabetes were 0.619 (95%CI: 0.536-0.701) in men and 0.667 (95%CI: 0.585-0.749) in women. Serum hs-CRP levels could predict the incidence of diabetes, indicating that inflammation might have great importance in the onset of diabetes.