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The following is a summary of “A Plasma Metabolite Score Related to Psychological Distress and Diabetes Risk: A Nested Case-control Study in US Women,” published in the June 2024 issue of Endocrinology by Huang, et al.

For a study, researchers sought to investigate the association between a metabolomic signature for psychological distress and the risk of developing diabetes.

A nested case-control study was conducted within the Nurses’ Health Study, involving 728 women with incident diabetes and 728 matched controls. Plasma metabolomics data were collected between 1989 and 1990, and incident diabetes was diagnosed between 1992 and 2008. Based on prior research, a weighted plasma metabolite-based distress score (MDS) comprised of 19 metabolites was calculated. Conditional logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (OR) and 95% CI for diabetes risk according to MDS, adjusting for matching and other diabetes risk factors.

After adjustment for sociodemographic factors, family history of diabetes, and health behaviors, the OR for diabetes risk across quintiles of MDS ranged from 1.00 (reference) for the lowest quintile to 2.47 for the highest quintile. Each standard deviation increase in MDS was associated with a 36% higher diabetes risk (95% CI: 1.21, 1.54; P-trend <.0001). This association was moderately attenuated after additional adjustment for body mass index (comparable OR: 1.17; 95% CI: 1.02, 1.35; P-trend = .02). The MDS explained 17.6% of the association between self-reported psychological distress and diabetes risk (P = .04).

The MDS showed a significant association with diabetes risk in women. The findings suggested that differences in lipid and amino acid metabolites may contribute to the link between psychological distress and diabetes risk.

Reference: academic.oup.com/jcem/article-abstract/109/6/e1434/7471893