Association Between Asthma and the Risk of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: Results From NHANES 2009–2016 Data

TL;DR

This study found that people with asthma are more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes, using data from a large health survey.

Contribution

The study provides evidence of a causal link between asthma and increased risk of Type 2 diabetes using Mendelian randomization.

Findings

Asthma was significantly associated with higher odds of Type 2 diabetes across multiple regression models.

Mendelian randomization analysis confirmed a causal effect of asthma on Type 2 diabetes risk.

Sensitivity analyses supported the robustness of the observed association.

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between asthma and the risk of Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) through a cross‐sectional analysis of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data from 2009 to 2016.

Weighted t‐tests and weighted chi‐square tests were used to compare the baseline characteristics between patients with T2DM and individuals without T2DM. Weighted multivariate logistic regression models were used to determine the association between asthma and the risk of T2DM. Two‐sample univariate Mendelian randomization (MR) was performed to analyze asthma and the risk of T2DM.

Among the 2348 participants included, the prevalence of asthma was 70.9% in T2DM patients. The results of the weighted multivariate logistic regression models revealed that asthma was significantly positively linked to T2DM risk, with odds ratios of 2.24, 2.26, and 1.92 in Models 1, 2, and 3, respectively. The fitting curve analysis demonstrated that asthma was positively correlated with the risk of T2DM. The MR results revealed a marked causal effect of asthma on T2DM, identifying asthma as a risk factor for T2DM. Sensitivity analysis confirmed the robustness of MR findings.

Asthma was significantly and positively associated with T2DM risk, indicating that it serves as a risk factor for the onset of this condition.

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