Approved Research

Effects of visceral adipose tissue mass and its interaction with different lifestyle patterns and genetic backgrounds on cardio-renal outcomes and cognitive disorders

Lay summary

Emerging evidence in recent years indicates that visceral adipose tissue may be predictors of cardio-renal diseases and cognitive disorders in individuals with diabetes. However, most of the studies in terms of this topic are either clinical trials or cross-sectional studies, which may have some bias caused by their strict inclusion and exclusion criteria, short follow-up duration, a low incidence of outcomes of interest, non-inclusion of racial diversities, and primarily aiming at assessments of pharmaceutical effectiveness and safety. UK biobank, derived from administrative databases and electronic medical records, especially for patients who are seeking healthcare and not participating in a research study, may represent the health-care seeking population more accurately.

The goal of this proposal is to investigate the interaction among visceral adipose tissue with the risk of cardio-renal outcomes (coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke, chronic kidney diseases, etc.) and cognitive disorders (dementia, Alzheimer's disease, etc.) in individuals with diabetes. We also aim to investigate the joint effect and the interaction of different lifestyle patterns (coffee, tea consumption, sleep, etc.) and genetic backgrounds on the development of these outcomes. On the other hand, a risk model algorithm will be established based on the findings. The project will last for 36 months. The findings of this project will provide new evidence of visceral adipose tissue on the risk estimation of cardio-renal outcomes and cognitive disorders in individuals with diabetes.