Obesity driving force behind escalating type 2 diabetes rates.

TIME (9/3, Oaklander) reports that according to a study published Sept. 2 in the Annals of Internal Medicine, obesity appears to be the “single biggest culprit to blame” for escalating rates of type 2 diabetes (T2D). After analyzing “data from five National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys of a nationally representative U.S. sample of 23,932 people,” researchers found that body mass index (BMI) “explained most of the increase in the prevalence of diabetes, even more than other big factors like race, ethnicity and age.”

        HealthDay (9/3, Doheny) reports that the study also “found that the prevalence of diabetes in men rose from about five percent to more than 11 percent. In women, it rose from under six percent to nearly nine percent.”