Date of Graduation

12-2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Human Environmental Science (MS)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Food Science

Advisor/Mentor

Garrison, Betsy

Committee Member

Moon, Zola K.

Second Committee Member

McNeill, Charleen

Keywords

Health and environmental sciences; Education; Body mass index (bmi); Diabetes mellitus; Risk factors; Type 2 diabetes mellitus

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus (DM) has been a major research topic in scientific health studies. Diabetes is a chronic condition in which blood glucose levels are chronically elevated to more than 7.0 mmol/l in fasting plasma glucose test. The most common form of diabetes is Type 2 (TD2M). The International Diabetes Federation (2015) estimated the number of DM cases worldwide to be 415 million people in 2015. This number is predicted to increase by the year 2040, to 642 million people. The purpose of this study was to use the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data to identify the risk factors for TD2M and their associations with the obesity as measured by the Body Mass Index (BMI) of diabetic and non-diabetic U.S. adults. The study findings for adults with diabetes included: (a) BMIs decreased as people aged, (b) females tended to have higher BMIs than males, (c) people who are Asian or Hispanic had lower BMIs, (e) smokers had lower BMIs than non-smokers, and (f) people who are more physically active had lower BMIs than less active people. For non-diabetic adults, relationships between BMI and age, gender, ethnicity, geographic region, education, physical activity, and smoking were significant. The relatively low R2 s, however, may indicate that salient variables were absent. Risk factors that might have been included in the IHIS are health history, genetics, diet, and Social relationships.

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