Obesity indicators as mediators of association between daytime napping and type 2 diabetes mellitus: the Guangzhou Biobank Cohort Study

Abstract

Objective: To examine the mediating effect of obesity indicators on the association between daytime napping and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) qualitatively and quantitatively using baseline data from the Guangzhou Biobank Cohort Study.

Methods: Twenty-nine thousand three hundred fifty-five participants aged 50+ years were included in this cross-sectional study. Mediation analysis was used to assess the mediating effect of body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), hip circumference (HC), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) on the association between daytime napping and T2DM after adjustment for sex, age, education, occupation, smoking status, alcohol use and physical activity.

Results: The mean (standard deviation) age of participants was 61.5 ( 7.1) years. The prevalence of T2DM and daytime napping was 12.5% and 65.2%, respectively. After adjustment for potential confounders, WC, WHR and WHtR showed partial mediating effects on the association between daytime napping and T2DM, with the proportion (95% confidence interval) of mediation effect being 10.17% (8.14–14.43%), 14.91% (11.95–21.24%) and 9.36% (7.49–13.29%), respectively. No mediating effect of BMI or HC on the association between daytime napping and T2DM was found.

Conclusions: Our results showed significant mediating effects of WC, WHR and WHtR on the association between daytime napping and T2DM, suggesting that waist circumference management could be important in daytime nappers.