Background: Factual data exploring the relationship between obesity and diabetes mellitus prevalence from\nrural areas of sub-Saharan Africa remain scattered and are unreliable. To address this scarceness, this work reports\npopulation study data describing the relationship between the obesity and the diabetes mellitus in the general\npopulation of the rural area of Katana (South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo).\nMethods: A cohort of three thousand, nine hundred, and sixty-two (3962) adults (>15 years old) were followed\nbetween 2012 and 2015 (or 4105 person-years during the observation period), and data were collected using the\nlocally adjusted World Health Organization�s (WHO) STEPwise approach to Surveillance (STEPS) methodology. The\nhazard ratio for progression of obesity was calculated. The association between diabetes mellitus and obesity was\nanalyzed with logistic regression.\nResults: The diabetes mellitus prevalence was 2.8 % versus 3.5 % for obese participants and 7.2 % for those with\nmetabolic syndrome, respectively. Within the diabetes group, 26.9 % had above-normal waist circumference and\nonly 9.8 % were obese. During the median follow-up period of 2 years, the incidence of obesity was 535/100,000\nperson-years. During the follow-up, the prevalence of abdominal obesity significantly increased by 23 % (p <0.0001),\nwhereas the increased prevalence of general obesity (7.8 %) was not significant (p = 0.53). Finally, diabetes mellitus\nwas independently associated with age, waist circumference, and blood pressure but not body mass index.\nConclusion: This study confirms an association between diabetes mellitus and abdominal obesity but not with\ngeneral obesity. On the other hand, the rapid increase in abdominal obesity prevalence in this rural area population\nwithin the follow-up period calls for the urgent promoting of preventive lifestyle measures.
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