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Frequent stress increases diabetes risk
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More frequent high-stress situations could increase the odds of developing diabetes in, according to findings from a study of Chinese adults published in the Journal of Diabetes Investigation.
“The pathogenesis of diabetes is complex, and a solid body of evidence has confirmed numerous traditional biological and behavioral risk factors,” Jie-Ming Zhong, of the department of non-communicable disease control and prevention in the Zhejiang Provincial CDC in Hangzhou, China, and colleagues wrote. “In addition to these risk factors for diabetes, several types of psychological factors, such as depression, psychological distress and personality traits, have also been implicated in diabetes development.”
Zhong and colleagues conducted a cross-sectional analysis of data from the China Kadoorie Biobank study, which included more than 500,000 adults from 10 sites in China from 2004 to 2008. Among the many measures taken at baseline, questions pertaining to stressful events in the previous 2 years were asked of each participant. Zhong and colleagues created three groups for these events based on work-related, family-related and personal-related incidents. Most participants reported zero events (n = 434,843; mean age, 51.49 years; 59.3% women), followed by one event (n = 35,929; mean age, 51.29 years; 61.74% women) and two or more events (n = 2,835; mean age, 50.23 years; 64.8% women).
Of the 473,607 participants included in Zhong and colleagues’ analysis, 25,301 were clinically diagnosed with diabetes or screen-detected with the condition, which meant that a participant had a non-fasting blood glucose level of at least 11.1 mmol/L or a fasting blood glucose level of at least 7 mmol/L at baseline.
Participants who reported one stressful event had a 10% increase in odds for developing diabetes (OR = 1.10; 95% CI, 1.05-1.16) compared with those without any reported events. The likelihood increased to 33% for participants who reported two or more stressful events (OR = 1.33; 95% CI, 1.13-1.57). Personal-related stress events created the highest odds (OR = 1.18; 95% CI, 1.06-1.18) followed by work-related events (OR = 1.15; 95% CI, 1.01-1.31) and family-related events (OR = 1.11; 95% CI, 1.06-1.18). Among these groups, the researchers noted that diabetes development odds were particularly high with specific events, such as losing a job or retiring (OR = 1.24; 95% CI, 1.02-1.52), having a major family conflict (OR = 1.24; 95% CI, 1.08-1.43), the death of a family member (OR = 1.13; 95% CI, 1.06-1.2) or a severe injury (OR = 1.2; 95% CI, 1.01-1.43).
“Although there have been large differences in the items of stressful life events measurement, study design, sampling and population across studies, the present results reinforced the findings of an elevated likelihood of diabetes with cumulative stressful life events in previous literature,” the researchers wrote. “Possible mechanisms accounting for the stress–diabetes link have been extensively studied and were hypothesized to be involved in detrimental lifestyle behaviors, and endocrine abnormalities through the neuroendocrine system and chronic inflammatory process.” – by Phil Neuffer
Disclosure: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.
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