Estimated Resting Metabolic Rate and Body Composition Measures Are Strongly Associated With Diabetic Retinopathy in Indonesian Adults With Type 2 Diabetes.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the associations of estimated resting metabolic rate (RMR), body fat (BF), subcutaneous fat (SCF), visceral fat (VF), fat-free mass (FFM) percentage, BMI, and waist circumference (WC) with diabetic retinopathy (DR) in Indonesian adults with type 2 diabetes.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

This was a community-based cross-sectional study of 1,184 subjects with type 2 diabetes. DR was assessed from fundus photography and categorized as mild, moderate nonproliferative DR (NPDR), and vision-threatening DR (VTDR). RMR and body composition parameters were measured using automated body composition scan. Logistic regression with semipartial correlation analysis was used.

RESULTS

DR and VTDR were present in 43.1 and 26.3% of participants, respectively. After adjustment for age, sex, diabetes duration, fasting glucose, systolic blood pressure, smoking, diabetic ulcer, and use of combined diabetes treatment, per SD increase in RMR (odds ratio [OR] 2.60 [95% CI 2.19-3.07]; < 0.001) was associated with DR, while per SD increases in BF (0.66 [95% CI 0.56-0.78]; < 0.001), FFM (0.69 [0.57-0.84]; < 0.001), VF (0.77 [0.67-0.88]; < 0.001), BMI (0.83 [0.73-0.94]; = 0.004), and WC (0.81 [0.73-0.91]; < 0.001) were inversely associated with presence of DR. Similar associations were found for VTDR. Among all variables, RMR had the largest contribution to the variance in the DR model (39%).

CONCLUSIONS

In this study, RMR and body composition measures were strongly associated with and contributed considerably to the presence and severity of DR. These findings, if confirmed, suggest that RMR and body composition may be strong markers that represent actual metabolic state in the pathophysiology of DR.