How large, how long, how risky
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Researchers say that the longer people carry extra weight, and the amount they carry, both figure into the amount of extra risk they have of developing diabetes.
Dr. Joyce Lee of the University of Michigan Health System's C.S. Mott Children's Hospital calls the combination the ``dose of obesity.'' She measured its effect in national data on about 8,000 teenagers and young adults.
"Regardless of whether individuals were mildly obese for a longer period of time or were very obese for a shorter period of time, a larger dose of obesity during the study was associated with a higher risk of diabetes." (11 seconds)
She says it's another reason for younger people to control their weight.
The study in Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine was supported by the National Institutes of Health.