MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
[caption id="attachment_50383" align="alignleft" width="128"]
Dr. Yangbo Sun[/caption]
Yangbo Sun MD, PhD
Department of Epidemiology
University of Iowa
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Dr. Wei Bao[/caption]
Wei Bao, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology
College of Public Health,
University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA 52242
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Obesity has become a
serious health problem in
the United States. Body mass index (BMI) which is calculated as weight (kg)/height (m)
2, is the standard measure used to define obesity in clinical and public health guidelines. However, BMI does not distinguish body shape or body fat distribution. Meanwhile central obesity, characterized by relatively high abdominal fat distribution, has been associated with higher risk of mortality, independent of BMI. So for example, two persons with the same BMI of 24 which is considered as “normal weight”, might have different abdominal fat distribution, thus they might be facing different risk of developing disease and mortality.
In the most recent obesity management guidelines, measuring central obesity was recommended among people who are either overweight or have class I obesity (BMI 25.0-34.9 kg/m
2), but not among people of normal weight. This might send those people with normal weight but with high abdominal fat as well as those public and clinical professionals a wrong message that these people are free of any particular obesity-related risk, while in fact, they are at elevated risk of mortality and might need risk reduction interventions, such as lifestyle modifications and other interventions. So we did this study to evaluate the mortality risk among this neglected group of people.
We found that women with normal weight central obesity were at increased risk of mortality.
Prof Ching-Chi Chi,[/caption]
Prof Ching-Chi Chi, MD, MMS, DPhil (Oxford)
Department of Dermatology
Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Linkou
Taiwan
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Psoriasis has been associated various inflammatory comorbidities including diabetes mellitus, coronary artery disease, etc. Moreover, obesity is prevalent among psoriasis patients and has been considered as an independent risk factor for occurrence and worsening of psoriasis by promoting systemic inflammation.
Notably, body weight (BW) gain of psoriasis patients after biologics use has been observed. However, there are inconsistent reports on whether biological therapy relates to BW gain. 
Frank Qian[/caption]
Frank Qian, MPH
Department of Nutrition
Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
Boston, Massachusetts
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Plant-based diets have really grown in popularity in the last several years, particularly among the younger generation in the United States, many of whom are adopting a plant-based or vegetarian/vegan diet. However, the quality of such a diet can vary drastically. While many prior studies have demonstrated beneficial associations for risk of type 2 diabetes with healthful plant-based foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts/seeds, whole grains, and legumes, the opposite is true for less healthful plant-based foods such as potatoes and refined grains such as white rice. In addition, some animal-based foods, such as dairy and fish, have shown protective associations against the development of type 2 diabetes, so strict vegetarian diets which exclude these foods may miss out on the potential benefits.
Given these divergent findings, we sought to pool all the available data from prior cohort studies to analyze whether the overall association of a diet which emphasizes plant-based foods (both healthful and unhealthful) are related to risk of type 2 diabetes.
