Factors related to the age at discovery of diabetes mellitus.

Abstract

ABSTRACT The possible relation between age at discovery on the one hand and body weight, body height, plasma cholesterol, cortisol binding capacity of plasma transcortin (CBC) and menarchial age on the other hand, was studied in 108 diabetic men and 111 diabetic women with onset of diabetes after age 19. Age at the time of study was included in the multiple regression analysis and only partial correlation coefficients of highest order were taken into account. By doing so, secular changes in certain parameters and changes with age in others could be eliminated. In adult men and women the age at discovery of diabetes mellitus correlated significantly but negatively with body height. In men, but not in women, the age at discovery also correlated with body weight (positively) and with the cortisol binding capacity of plasma transcortin (negatively). Similar significant correlations were recorded when the age at discovery in older diabetics was corrected (up to 10 yr) for a possible delay in diagnosis.