Attitudes, health lifestyle behaviors and cardiometabolic risk factors among relatives of individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus

Objective: To describe and compare attitudes, lifestyle behaviors, and cardiometabolic risk factors between individuals with and without a relative with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) living in the same household. Methods: A secondary analysis of baseline data from an implementation study in Peru was conducted. The outcomes were attitudes towards changing lifestyle behaviors (e.g. intentions towards losing weight, increasing physical activity, reducing salt consumption, etc), profiles of health lifestyle behaviors (e.g. daily smoking, heavy drinking, and physical activity), and cardiometabolic risk factors (e.g., overweight [body mass index ≥25 kg/m²] and hypertension); whereas the exposure was the presence of at least one relative with known diagnosis of T2DM living in the same household. Multilevel logistic mixed effect regression models were used to estimate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). Results: A total of 2298 records, 1134 (49.4%) males, mean age 43.3 (SD: 17.2) years, were analyzed. There was no evidence of a difference in lifestyle-changing attitudes, smoking, alcohol drinking, physical activity levels, and hypertension between individuals with and without relatives with T2DM. Overweight was 63% more common among individuals having a relative with a T2DM in multivariable model (OR = 1.63; 95% CI: 1.03–2.61). Conclusions: Individuals with relatives with T2DM have higher probabilities of being overweight compared to those who did not have relatives with T2DM in the same household. The absence of differences on lifestyle-related attitudes and behaviors highlight the need of involving relatives of patients with T2DM on intervention strategies to further enhance diabetes prevention and management efforts.