Evidence-Based Assignment

Epidemic obesity and type 2 diabetes in Asia

Who is the target audience?

As I read this, I think there are at least two target audiences: the public health department of the government and the regular population of Asia.

Does the article provide statistics from any of the original research?

Yes. This article is a review of 113 different articles. It provided some of the statistics of the original research. From these statistics, the author concluded that Asians have higher body fat then European origin as the same BMI level, and have higher prevalence of type 2 diabetes. People in Asia develop diabetes at a lower degree of obesity and at younger ages, suffer longer with chronic diabetic complications, and die sooner that those in developed countries. And Asians have a strong genetic susceptibility to type 2 diabetes, characterized by early B-cell failure and prominent central obesity.

How is the evidence relevant to your current level of practice?

Healthcare professionals in the US tend to use BMI to determine if the individual is overweight or obese. BMI is a good indictor to predict individual at risk of type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and coronary artery disease and so on. But as a group of Asians, the indicator has to be used differently. This article provided some evidence of BMI <>30kg/m2. So healthcare practice need to be individualized. This affects our health teaching to patient. As for Asians, even BMI<25kg/m2, there are still needs for better lifestyle and weight control and exercises.

Any indication the evidence is being utilized in your current or other clinical setting?

As so far, I did not see any practice utilizing this evidence in clinical setting I was involved. I am a Asian, my BMI is 23.4kg/m2 which considered normal by the WHO standard, and healthcare personals around me all were saying that my body’s size is perfect even I knew I need to keep exercises and watch my diet fat. I am glad I read this article so that I can use it on my future practice.

Reference:

Yoon, Kun-Ho, Lee, Jin-Hee, Kim, Ji-Won, Cho, Jae Hyoung, Choi, Yoon-Hee, Ko, Seung-Hyun, Zimmet, Paul, San & Ho-Young. (2006). Epidemic obesity and type 2 diabetes in Asia. Lancet 2006, 368, pp. 1681-1688.