Excess weight, particularly central
obesity, is recognized to be a major
determinant of diabetes risk in all
populations, with the magnitude of the
association reported as being stronger in
Asians than whites (1β3). Consequently,
indicators of overweight have been incorporated
into several guidelines for the
early identification of individuals with
type 2 diabetes (4). However, the anthropometric
cut points for different ethnic
groups have been determined in various
ways, leading to uncertainty about their
applicability to diabetes screening. Here,
we clarify current uncertainty regarding
ethnic differences in the relationship between
overweight and diabetes and
whether there is a single measure of overweight
that can be determined routinely
and applied universally in clinical practice
to facilitate earlier detection of diabetes
in the general population