JAKE J. PORTER III The association of subscapular and triceps skin-fold thickness with the risk of Diabetes in African American, Hispanic, and Caucasian Adults (Under the direction of IKE S. OKOSUN, Ph.D.) Background: Studies linking adiposity with chronic morbidity are often restricted to obesity defined by body mass index and/or waist circumference. Few studies have examined the relationship between adiposity defined using body habitus and chronic diseases. Objective: We examined the potential association of subscapular and triceps skin-fold thickness with the risk of diabetes in African American, Caucasian, and Hispanic American adults. Methods: Data (n=4,808) from The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey were used. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed on each anthropometric measure. Statistical adjustments were made for several known covariates. Results: There were racial/ethnic differences in associations between subscapular and triceps skinfold thickness with type 2 diabetes. Conclusion: Skinfold thickness was associated with type 2 diabetes in White, Black and Hispanic Americans. Well designed public health strategies to enhance lifestyle modification programs to reduce weight gain may reduce aberrant fat distribution in these body regions and decreases in type 2 diabetes.

We seek to observe the association between childhood obesity by different measures and adult obesity, metabolic syndrome (MetS), and diabetes. Thousand two hundred and nine subjects from “Beijing Blood Pressure Cohort Study” were followed 22.9 ± 0.5 years in average from childhood to adulthood. We defined childhood obesity using body mass index (BMI) or left subscapular skinfold (LSSF), and adult obesity as BMI ≥28 kg/m2. MetS was defined according to the joint statement of International Diabetes Federation and American Heart Association with modified waist circumference (≥90/85 cm for men/women). Diabetes was defined as fasting plasma glucose ≥7.0 mmol/L or blood glucose 2 h after oral glucose tolerance test ≥11.1 mmol/L or currently using blood glucose-lowering agents. Multiple linear and logistic regression models were used to assess the association. The incidence of adult obesity was 13.4, 60.0, 48.3, and 65.1 % for children without obesity, having obesity by BMI only, by LSSF only, and by both, respectively. Compared to children without obesity, children obese by LSSF only or by both had higher risk of diabetes. After controlling for adult obesity, childhood obesity predicted independently long-term risks of diabetes (odds ratio 2.8, 95 % confidence interval 1.2–6.3) or abdominal obesity (2.7, 1.6–4.7) other than MetS as a whole (1.2, 0.6–2.4). Childhood obesity predicts long-term risk of adult diabetes, and the effect is independent of adult obesity. LSSF is better than BMI in predicting adult diabetes.

In my thesis I am studying and analyzing a long time monitoring of physical growth of children from 6 to 15 years. There were selected children of both genders from the whole database monitoring children and there is noticed physical growth into individual growth curves. The evaluation of individuals was about these physical parameters: body height, body weight, Body Mass Index, abdominal circumference, gluteal circumference and subscapular skinfold.