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Comparison of HOMA-IR, HOMA-β% and disposition index between US white men and Japanese men in Japan: the ERA JUMP study

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Abstract

Aims/hypothesis

At the same level of BMI, white people have less visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and are less susceptible to developing type 2 diabetes than Japanese people. No previous population-based studies have compared insulin resistance and insulin secretion between these two races in a standardised manner that accounts for VAT. We compared HOMA-IR, HOMA of beta cell function (HOMA-β%) and disposition index (DI) in US white men and Japanese men in Japan.

Methods

We conducted a population-based, cross-sectional study, comprising 298 white men and 294 Japanese men aged 40–49 years without diabetes. Insulin, glucose, VAT and other measurements were performed at the University of Pittsburgh. We used ANCOVA to compare geometric means of HOMA-IR, HOMA-β% and DI, adjusting for VAT and other covariates.

Results

White men had higher HOMA-IR, HOMA-β% and DI than Japanese men, and the difference remained significant (p < 0.01) after adjusting for VAT (geometric mean [95% CI]): 3.1 (2.9, 3.2) vs 2.5 (2.4, 2.6), 130.8 (124.6, 137.3) vs 86.7 (82.5, 91.0), and 42.4 (41.0, 44.0) vs 34.8 (33.6, 36.0), respectively. Moreover, HOMA-IR, HOMA-β% and DI were significantly higher in white men even after further adjustment for BMI, impaired fasting glucose and other risk factors.

Conclusions/interpretation

The higher VAT-adjusted DI in white men than Japanese men may partly explain lower susceptibility of white people than Japanese people to developing type 2 diabetes. The results, however, should be interpreted with caution because the assessment of insulin indices was made using fasting samples and adjustment was not made for baseline glucose tolerance. Further studies using formal methods to evaluate insulin indices are warranted.

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Abbreviations

CRP:

C-reactive protein

DI:

Disposition index

ERA JUMP:

EBCT and Risk Factor Assessment among Japanese and U.S. Men in the Post World War II Birth Cohort

HOMA-β%:

HOMA of beta cell function

IFG:

Impaired fasting glucose

IGT:

Impaired glucose tolerance

VAT:

Visceral adipose tissue

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Funding

This research was funded by the National Institute of Health (RO1 HL68200) and from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (B16790335 and A13307016).

Duality of interest

The authors declare that there is no duality of interest associated with this manuscript.

Contribution statement

VA, TK, RWE, AKad, TO, AF, EJMB-M, TH, AV, KM, HM, AKash, LHK, HU, AE-S and AS contributed to conception and design. TK, TO, EJMB-M, HM, AKash, HU and AE-S collected the data. VA, SREK and AS analysed and interpreted the data. VA drafted the article. All authors critically revised the article for intellectual content. All authors approved the final version. VA and AS are guarantors of this work.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh, 130 N. Bellefield Avenue, Suite 546, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA

    Vasudha Ahuja, Abhishek Vishnu & Akira Sekikawa

  2. Department of Public Health, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Shiga, Japan

    Takashi Kadowaki, Aya Kadota, Tomonori Okamura, Akira Fujiyoshi, Takashi Hisamatsu, Katsuyuki Miura & Hirotsugu Ueshima

  3. Department of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Rhobert W. Evans, Samar R. El Khoudary, Emma J. M. Barinas-Mitchell, Aiman El-Saed & Lewis H. Kuller

  4. Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, School of Medicine, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan

    Tomonori Okamura

  5. Department of Medicine, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Shiga, Japan

    Hiroshi Maegawa & Atsunori Kashiwagi

  6. Infection Prevention and Control Department, King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Aiman El-Saed

Authors
  1. Vasudha Ahuja
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  2. Takashi Kadowaki
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  16. Hirotsugu Ueshima
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  17. Akira Sekikawa
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Consortia

for the ERA JUMP Study Group

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Akira Sekikawa.

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Ahuja, V., Kadowaki, T., Evans, R.W. et al. Comparison of HOMA-IR, HOMA-β% and disposition index between US white men and Japanese men in Japan: the ERA JUMP study. Diabetologia 58, 265–271 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00125-014-3414-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00125-014-3414-6

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