Middle-aged Japanese Population Research Articles

A case-control study of risk factors for development of type 2 diabetes: emphasis on physical activity.

The aim of this case-control study was to evaluate the association between the lifestyle risk factors, especially physical activity, and the prevalence of type 2 diabetes and the comorbidity of type 2 diabetes and dyslipidemia in middle-aged Japanese urban population. Subjects (279 males and 119 females, 53.5+/-6.8 years old) were selected from one city office in Tokyo and consisted of type 2 diabetes cases (n=53), dyslipidemia cases (n=130), the comorbidity cases (n=58) and sex- and age-matched controls (n=155). A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect physical activity data using Baecke's questionnaire translated and other lifestyle data. Our results revealed that physical activity was significantly associated with the reduction of the prevalence of type 2 diabetes and the comorbidity, and the sex- and age-adjusted odds ratios of the fourth quartile to the lowest one were 0.31 (95%CI:0.12-0.81) and 0.32 (95%CI:0.13-0.81), respectively. Family history of diabetes and smoking were independent risk factors for the prevalence of type 2 diabetes and the comorbidity.

Association of essential hypertension in elderly Japanese with I/D polymorphism of the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) gene.

Recent evidence suggests that an insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism of the gene encoding angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) is associated with myocardial infarction and related cardiovascular diseases. We investigated a possible association of the ACE polymorphism with essential hypertension in a total of 263 cases/controls from among the elderly (age, over 70 years) and middle-aged (age between 30 and 60 years) Japanese population. The frequency of the I/I homozygote was significantly higher in hypertensive subjects than in controls in the elderly age group (33/57 vs 16/46; P = 0.02), but no association was observed in the middle-aged group (25/75 vs 26/85; P = 0.71). Similarly, having at least one insertion allele was associated with essential hypertension in the elderly age group (83/114 vs 46/92 in controls; P = 0.001), but not in the middle-aged group (78/150 vs 94/170; P = 0.524). These data suggest that genetic variation at the ACE locus may be associated with some determinants for blood pressure in elderly persons, and imply the involvement of the ACE insertion/deletion polymorphism in the etiology of age-related essential hypertension in the Japanese population.