Ethnicity: Insulin Resistance Risk

Ethnicity Related to Insulin Resistance Risk

By Ed Susman, Contributing Writer, MedPage Today Published: November 06, 2010 Reviewed by Robert Jasmer, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco. Action Points   Note that this study was published as an abstract and presented at a conference. These data and conclusions should be considered to be preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal. Explain to interested patients that although individuals of African-Caribbean and South Asian ethnicity are both more likely to exhibit insulin resistance than white Europeans, the African-Caribbeans appear to have a more protective lipid profile than the South Asians. LOS ANGELES -- Although individuals of African-Caribbean and South Asian ethnicity are both more likely to exhibit insulin resistance than white Europeans, the African-Caribbeans appear to have a more protective lipid profile than the South Asians, a researcher said here. The African-Caribbeans had fasting insulin levels of 84.1 pmol/L (11.7 μU/mL) higher than the white control population (65.3 pmol/L, 9.1 μU/mL) (P=0.02), reported Louise Goff, MD, of King's College London in a poster presentation here at the World Congress on Insulin Resistance, Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease. African-Caribbean individuals also had lower total cholesterol (4.7 mmol/L, 180.1 mg/dL) than whites (5.3 mmol/L, 203.8 mg/dL) (P=0.001) and decreased low density lipoprotein cholesterol (2.92 mmol/L, 113.0 mg/dL) than whites (3.15 mmol/L, 121.9 mg/dL) and decreased triglycerides (0.80 mmol/L, 70.7 mg/dL) compared with whites (1.30 mmol/L, 114.9 mg/dL) (P<0.001).