PCOS carries elevated diabetes risk regardless of obesity status

Women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) are at risk of developing subsequent type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), even those without obesity, a study reports.

The study used data from the National Health Insurance Service—National Sample Cohort (NHIS-NSC) obtained from the Korean National Health Insurance Service (K-NHIS) and included 1,136 PCOS patients aged 15–44 years and 5,675 matched women without the condition.

The incidence of newly diagnosed PCOS in the study population showed an increasing trend from 2003 to 2012 (p<0.0001). A total of 15.7 percent and 14.4 percent women in the PCOS and control groups, respectively, had obesity (body mass index ≥25 kg/m²).

The incidence rate of T2DM was 15.84/1,000 and 5.80/1,000 person-years in the PCOS and control groups, respectively.

Over a follow-up duration of 144,831,677 person-years, T2DM occurred with significantly greater frequency among women with PCOS than controls. The corresponding incidence rates were 15.84 vs 5.80 per 1,000 person-years (p<0.001).

Multivariate Cox regression analysis confirmed that PCOS contributed to a more than twofold increase in the risk of incident T2DM (hazard ratio [HR], 2.355, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.80–3.08). This association was consistent among women with obesity (vs obese women without PCOS: HR, 2.847, 95 percent CI, 1.59–5.11; vs nonobese women without PCOS: HR, 4.821, 95 percent CI, 3.08–7.54, respectively) and among those with normal weight (vs nonobese women without PCOS: HR, 2.334, 95 percent CI, 1.72–3.18).

The findings underscore the importance of screening for T2DM among obese and nonobese women with PCOS.