Muscle health may help predict type 2 diabetes risk, study finds

Muscle health may help predict type 2 diabetes risk, study finds

14 Jul 2026

Researchers say assessing muscle strength and muscle mass, alongside body weight, may help GPs detect risk earlier.

Published in Diabetes Care, the study analysed health data from 479,607 adults in the UK Biobank who did not have diabetes at the start of the research.

During a median follow-up of 14.2 years, 32,948 participants developed type 2 diabetes.

The researchers found that people with sarcopenic obesity—a condition that combines excess body fat with low muscle mass—were more than 3.5 times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those with a healthy body composition.

The risk was especially higher in women and adults younger than 60 years.

Compared with people who had obesity alone, those with sarcopenic obesity had a 19% higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes. They were also 91% more likely to develop the condition than people with sarcopenia alone.

Professor Mario Siervo, the study’s senior lead, said the findings support a broader approach to diabetes prevention in general practice.

He said that while body weight is routinely monitored, assessing muscle health could help identify people at high risk earlier.

Lead author Zhongyang Guan said the findings challenge the idea that body weight is the main factor driving diabetes risk. He said maintaining muscle strength and muscle mass may be just as important as managing body weight when assessing a person’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Muscle health may help predict type 2 diabetes risk, study finds

Source: Curtin University | Diabetes Care
 

Categories

Popular Posts

Recent Posts

Tags