Research

Mixed

Higher body mass index (BMI) causally increases the risk of type-2 diabetes (T2D), with a 1 SD increase in BMI resulting in a 3.29-fold increase in T2D risk.

Maintaining a healthy BMI is one of the most effective ways to prevent type-2 diabetes. This study confirms that higher BMI directly causes a significantly higher risk of developing T2D. Focus on sustainable weight management through diet and physical activity to lower this risk.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Results from analyses of the community-based data showed that BMI had risk effects on T2D (odds ratio, OR = 3.29)... The interpretation of OR(BMI→T2D) = 3.29 is that people whose BMI are 1 SD... above the population mean will have 3.29 times increase in risk to T2D compared with the population prevalence.
Zhihong Zhu et al. · Nature Communications · 2018

Why this rating

Uses large-scale GWAS summary data (n up to 405,072) and Mendelian randomization, which reduces confounding, though it is observational genetics rather than an RCT.

Source

Causal associations between risk factors and common diseases inferred from GWAS summary data

Zhihong Zhu et al. · Nature Communications · 2018

DOI 10.1038/s41467-017-02317-2

cohort · n=405072Cited 991×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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