Type 2 diabetes risk factors
Not everyone develops diabetes, and doctors can’t always predict who will or won’t develop the condition.
Certain risk factorsTrusted Source
may increase people’s risk for type two diabetes. Some elements, like genetics, cannot be altered; however, people can control other factors to help reduce their risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
For example, obesity and a sedentary lifestyle are risk factors. People with obesity can undergo medical treatment, change their eating habits, and activity levels to help them maintain a healthy weight and reap the benefits of physical activity.
Some data suggestTrusted Source
that factors like inflammation, high blood pressure, high fasting blood sugar levels, and abnormal cholesterol levels may all contribute to someone’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Researchers are still working to understand how risk factors work together and how people can best control these risk factors to reduce their risk for diabetes.
How poor sleep quality affects health
Sleep is an essential component of health. Certain tests can objectively measure sleep components, but how people interpret their sleep quality also matters.
Researchers in this study wanted to understand how people’s reports of trouble sleeping and objective sleep measures impacted specific type 2 diabetes risk factors. Researchers included just over 1,000 participants in their analysis.
UniSA researcher and study author Dr. Lisa Matricciani explained the setup for the study to Medical News Today:
“Our study examined the association between different dimensions of sleep and risk factors for type 2 diabetes (BMI, cholesterol, and inflammation). The dimensions of sleep included self-report troubled sleep and actigraphy-derived sleep parameters (measures of sleep that are recorded using a wrist-worn activity monitor).”
Researchers asked participants how often they had trouble sleeping. Then they monitored participants to measure sleep characteristics, such as how long they slept and how the length changed daily. They further collected info on cardiometabolic factors by doing blood work and calculating each participant’s body mass index (BMI).
The researchers found that both the subjective and objective measurements of sleep may influence cardiometabolic health and thus potentially increase the risk for the development of type 2 diabetes.
“Our results suggest that both self-report[ed] and actigraphy-derived dimensions of sleep may be associated with risk factors for type 2 diabetes,” said Dr. Matricciani.
