OTTAWA — A new study has linked Type 2 diabetes in some women with low levels of household income and education.
The study released by Statistics Canada says the links are independent of other factors such as the well-established relationship with excess weight.
Even allowing for the effects of overweight, obesity and ethno-cultural origin, the study found lower-income women were significantly more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes than were their counterparts in high-income households.
It found any relationship between household income and the onset of diabetes in men disappeared when other factors were taken into account.
Instead, the development of diabetes among men was related to being overweight or obese, and to the number of secondary behavioural factors they reported, such as heavy drinking, smoking and physical inactivity.
The 15-year study is based on 12,333 respondents to the National Population Health Survey, aged 18 or older.
Among those who had been free of diabetes in 1994-95, the study found 7.2 per cent of men and 6.3 per cent of women had either developed or died from the disease by 2008-09.