Volume 17, Issue 1 e70039
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Open Access

Linking Creatinine-to-Body Weight Ratio With Diabetes Incidence: A Multiethnic Malaysian Cohort Study

Noraidatulakma Abdullah

Noraidatulakma Abdullah

UKM Medical Molecular Biology Institute (UMBI), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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Ying-Xian Goh

Ying-Xian Goh

UKM Medical Molecular Biology Institute (UMBI), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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Aisyatul Najihah Khuzaimi

Aisyatul Najihah Khuzaimi

UKM Medical Molecular Biology Institute (UMBI), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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Azwa Shawani Kamalul Arifin

Azwa Shawani Kamalul Arifin

UKM Medical Molecular Biology Institute (UMBI), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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Nurul Ain Mhd Yusuf

Nurul Ain Mhd Yusuf

UKM Medical Molecular Biology Institute (UMBI), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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Nazihah Abd Jalal

Nazihah Abd Jalal

UKM Medical Molecular Biology Institute (UMBI), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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Norliza Ismail

Norliza Ismail

UKM Medical Molecular Biology Institute (UMBI), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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Nurul Faeizah Husin

Nurul Faeizah Husin

UKM Medical Molecular Biology Institute (UMBI), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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Mohd Arman Kamaruddin

Mohd Arman Kamaruddin

UKM Medical Molecular Biology Institute (UMBI), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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Rahman Jamal

Corresponding Author

Rahman Jamal

UKM Medical Molecular Biology Institute (UMBI), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Correspondence:

Rahman Jamal ([email protected])

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First published: 22 January 2025

Funding: This work was supported by a top-down grant from the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (Grant number PDE48). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Noraidatulakma Abdullah and Ying-Xian Goh have contributed equally to this work and should be considered joint first author.

ABSTRACT

Background

Emerging evidence suggests that the creatinine-to-body weight (Cre/BW) ratio is a predictor for incident diabetes in the Asian population. This study examined the association between Cre/BW ratio and incident diabetes, as well as the relationship between Cre/BW ratio and skeletal muscle and body fat mass in a multiethnic Malaysian cohort.

Methods

A total of 13 047 eligible participants were selected from 119 560 The Malaysian Cohort participants. Of these, 750 who developed diabetes were selected as cases, while 3750 controls were chosen randomly from healthy participants. This nested case–control study included 4500 eligible participants from The Malaysian Cohort, with a 1:5 case-to-control ratio. Participants were stratified into four groups based on Cre/BW ratio quartiles. The Cox proportional hazards model evaluated the effect of Cre/BW ratio on developing incident diabetes. The association between Cre/BW ratio and body composition was assessed using the Pearson correlation coefficient.

Results

Of the 13 047 eligible participants followed up over 5.3 years, 5.75% (n = 750) developed diabetes. Diabetes incidence decreased with increasing Cre/BW ratios. The Cre/BW ratio was inversely correlated with diabetes risk (HR: 0.403, 95% CI: 0.315–0.515, p < 0.001). Additionally, males and Indians had a higher risk of developing incident diabetes. A significant correlation was observed between Cre/BW ratio and body fat mass (p < 0.001).

Conclusions

This study reveals an inverse association between the Cre/BW ratio and incident diabetes. It also found a significant moderate correlation between the Cre/BW ratio and body fat mass.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Data Availability Statement

The data sets generated and analyzed during the current study are not publicly available but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

The full text of this article hosted at iucr.org is unavailable due to technical difficulties.