Type 2 Diabetes: Recently Diagnosed

What Increases Your Risk

Type 2 diabetes can run in families. Certain factors increase your family members' risk for developing diabetes, including:

• Being overweight. The risk for type 2 diabetes increases with weight gain (increasing body mass index, or BMI), especially a gain of more than 10 kg (22 lb) after age 18 in women or 8 kg (18 lb) after age 21 in men. Having a large amount of fat in the abdominal area also increases the risk.¹ To determine BMI, see the charts:
  • Healthy weight for adults or healthy weight for adults (metric).
  • BMI chart for boys or the BMI chart for girls. Children who are in the 85th percentile or above for their age have a risk of developing type 2 diabetes in childhood.
• Lack of exercise. Participating in physical activity less than once a week increases a person's chance of developing type 2 diabetes by 20% to 40%.¹ One large study found that women who were sedentary, especially those who watched a lot of television, were at higher-than-average risk for obesity and type 2 diabetes.²
• Having prediabetes, or impaired glucose tolerance. A large, long-term study showed that a nutritious diet and regular exercise can prevent type 2 diabetes. Lifestyle changes reduced the risk by 58% overall and by 71% in people older than 60.³

For a complete list of risk factors for type 2 diabetes, see the What Increases Your Risk section of the topic Type 2 Diabetes.

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Author:	Merrill Hayden Carrie Henley	Last Updated: November 27, 2006
Medical Review:	Adam Husney, MD - Family Medicine Caroline S. Rhoads, MD - Internal Medicine Hanan Bassyouni, MD - Endocrinology and Metabolism Matthew I. Kim, MD - Endocrinology & Metabolism
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