Prevalence of Metabolic Conditions Differentiated by BMI in U.S. Adults

Introduction: To investigate the prevalence of metabolic conditions by body mass index (BMI) in U.S. adults, with metabolic conditions including type 2 diabetes (T2D), hypertension and dyslipidemia for overall and undiagnosed conditions.
Methods: Adult participants were from the U.S. CDC 2013-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. BMI categories were: under/normal weight (BMI < 25kg/m2), overweight (25≤ BMI<30 kg/m2) and obese (BMI ≥30 kg/m2). The weighted prevalence and its 95% confidence interval by BMI were calculated. The proportional test identified if a significant difference in the prevalence of metabolic conditions existed using under/normal as the reference.
Results: The overall weighted prevalence of diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol and overall abnormal cardiometabolic conditions were 16.1%, 60.3%, 57.5% and 76.3%, respectively, and 8.8%, 11.3%, 16.8% and 30.2%, respectively for the undiagnosed conditions. The prevalence of each metabolic condition increased with increasing BMI. However, among black participants, individuals with under/normal weight had a significant higher prevalence of undiagnosed T2D compared to their obese peers (12.1% vs. 7.5%).
Discussion: This study showed a notable fraction of U.S adults were suffering undiagnosed metabolic conditions, BMI remains a useful tool for identifying those at high risk for cardiometabolic conditions, however, racial differences in diseases by BMI existed.