Relationships between fasting glucose levels, lifestyle factors, and metabolic parameters in Korean adults without diagnosis of diabetes mellitus

Abstract

Background: We investigated the associations between fasting glucose level ranges with lifestyle factors and metabolic profiles among adults without previous diagnosis of diabetes. Methods: We analyzed 13,625 adults without previous diagnosis of diabetes from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey during 2016-2018. We categorized fasting glucose levels (mg/dL) as follows: <90, 90-99, 100-109, 110-124, and ≥125. We evaluated trends in the proportions of individuals with obesity, abdominal, obesity, current smoking, heavy drinking, and low physical activity according to these categories, and the odds for uncontrolled BP, LDL-C, TG, and HDL-C for each fasting glucose level compared to a fasting glucose level of <90 mg/dL. Results: The proportions of individuals with obesity, abdominal obesity, and heavy drinking increased according to fasting glucose level (p for trend <0.05). The odds for BP ≥140/90 mmHg, TG ≥150 mg/dL, HDL-C <40 mg/dL in men and HDL-C <50 mg/dL in women increased with increasing fasting glucose levels; however, and the odds for LDL-C ≥130 mg/dL increased with increasing fasting glucose levels only in women. The increases in odds for uncontrolled BP and lipid profiles were mostly observed for fasting glucose levels ≥90 mg/dL. Conclusions: Efforts are needed to prevent increased fasting glucose levels, as higher levels, even within normal range, were associated with poor metabolic profiles.