Abstract
Although the incidence of “diabesity” (coexistence of type 2 diabetes and obesity) is alarmingly increasing in Algeria, the diet–diabesity link has not been well defined. This study aimed to explore the association between dietary diversity score (DDS) and obesity among Algerian type 2 diabetic patients. It was a cross-sectional observational study involving 390 type 2 diabetic patients. Anthropometric data were gathered, and dietary intake information was obtained through a 24-h dietary recall method, which was used to calculate DDS. Potential confounders such as age, sex, smoking, physical activity and energy intake were controlled for using multivariate logistic regression. A total of 160 patients (41.3%) were classified as obese. As expected, obese patients had a higher body mass index, waist circumference, hip circumference, body fat and fat mass index. Furthermore, obese patients more frequently met carbohydrate recommendations and had a higher intake of meat and protein. Female sex, hypertension, low physical activity and high meat and protein intake were positively associated with diabesity. Additionally, higher DDS was positively associated with diabesity after adjusting for confounders. Thus, a more diversified diet may be a risk factor for obesity among Algerian type 2 diabetic patients.
Highlights
Diabesity, defined as the coexistence of diabetes mellitus type 2 (T2DM) and obesity, was considered the pandemic of the 21st century up to March 2020 when the World Health Organization (WHO) announced coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as a pandemic [1]
2.8% were on a diet alone, 60.8% were on oral antidiabetic agents, 12.1% were on insulin alone and 24.4% were on a combination of oral antidiabetic agents and insulin
Female sex, hypertension and physical inactivity were significant predictors of diabesity. These findings are in line with the results of a report made by the Algerian Ministry of Health, Population and Hospital Reform in collaboration with WHO [13], which indicates that obese Algerian women with T2DM lead a significantly more sedentary lifestyle than men (26.5% vs. 17.5%, respectively)
Summary
Diabesity, defined as the coexistence of diabetes mellitus type 2 (T2DM) and obesity, was considered the pandemic of the 21st century up to March 2020 when the World Health Organization (WHO) announced coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as a pandemic [1]. Higher DDS is related to greater intake of healthy food groups [6,7], which are recognized to protect against obesity, consuming a diet with a high variety increases energy intake and the risk of obesity [8,9,10]. Such significant relationships were not observed in other studies [11,12]
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