A structural equation modeling examining the influence of body mass index on the lipid profile of type II diabetes patients.

Background: High Body Mass Index (BMI) has a two times greater risk of developing type II diabetes compared to low BMI. The results showed that general obesity had a risk of 2.24 times while abdominal obesity had a risk of 2.44 times for the occurrence of diabetes. Aim: Based on the background described, the researcher was interested in examining the influence of BMI on the lipid profile of type II diabetes patients. Methods: A considerably large sample of 500 type II diabetes patients who attended the outpatient department of Endocrinology wing of NIMS Medicity (NICER-Noorul Islam Centre for Endocrinology Research), Kerala, India were selected to the macrosample pool following purposive random sampling method. Height and weight of the patients were taken following standard methods and BMI of the patients was computed. Biochemical investigations such as their lipid profile along with Fasting, Post Prandial Blood Glucose values and HbA1C were obtained from patients' medical records. Finally, the hypothesized model was developed and tested by Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique using SPSS AMOS 22.0. Results: The results show that height and weight highly influenced the BMI, among which weight, as shown by Standardized Regression Weights (SRW) Estimate- 1.102, Statistically Significant) influenced more than height (SRW Estimate:-0.683, Statistically Significant), weight had a positive influence, whereas height had a negative influence in selected Type II Diabetes patients. The model could not establish any relationship between BMI and lipid profile (SRW Estimate:-0.037, Statistically not Significant). Conclusion: The findings suggest that in diabetes patients increase in BMI alone does not lead to any alterations in their lipid profile.