The Relationship Between Body Fat Percentage, Anthropometric Measurements, and Diabetes Complications in Female Patients with Type 2 Diabetes.

Objective

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between body fat percentage, anthropometric measurements, and the microvascular and macrovascular complications of diabetes in female patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Methods

This was a single-center, cross-sectional study. A total of 146 female patients who met the inclusion criteria and were admitted to the diabetes clinic of a training and research hospital were enrolled after obtaining informed consent. Anthropometric measurements including height, weight, body mass index, waist circumference, hip circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, and skinfold thickness were recorded. Body fat percentage was assessed using a bioelectrical impedance analyzer. The presence of retinopathy, nephropathy, neuropathy, and macrovascular complications was documented. A p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results

In our study, the median age of the participants was 63.0 years, and the mean duration of diabetes was 17.21 ± 8.37 years. Retinopathy was detected in 30 patients (20.5%), nephropathy in 41 patients (28.1%), neuropathy in 46 patients (31.5%), and macrovascular complications in 48 patients (32.9%). When weight was controlled as a constant variable, patients with retinopathy, nephropathy, and macrovascular complications had a statistically significant increase in waist circumference compared to those without these complications (p < 0.05). Suprailiac skinfold thickness was found to be positively associated with both retinopathy and nephropathy (p < 0.05).

Conclusions

In our study, no significant differences were observed in body fat measurements assessed by bioimpedance analysis and skinfold thickness between female patients with and without diabetic complications. Waist circumference measurement, which can be easily performed in primary health care settings, appears to be a much more important indicator of both macrovascular and microvascular complication risk in female patients with diabetes compared to bioimpedance and skinfold thickness methods.