Risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus in catholic priests compared with general public

Youngmi Eun, Sun Myeong Ock, Se Hong Kim, Ju Hye Chung, Se Jin Park, Churlmin Kim, Min Kyun Im, Kyung do Han

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Aims: Although Catholic priests have a life of discipline with many responsibilities, there has been little research on the health effects of their lifestyle. Analysis of disease prevalence in priests will help elucidate the influence of religious life and occupational characteristics on the occurrence of diabetes. This retrospective study was performed to examine the differences in the prevalence of diabetes and prediabetes between Catholic priests and the general population. Methods: The study population comprised 1845 Catholic priests aged 31–80 years who visited the health promotion centers of three university hospitals in Korea between 2010 and 2019. Controls consisted of 1801 adult non-clerics aged 31–80 years who underwent health checkups at the screening center during the same period. Logistic regression analysis was performed to compare the differences in the rates of diabetes and prediabetes between the priest and control groups. Result: Priests were younger and had lower rates of smoking, drinking alcohol, and hypertension compared with the control group. However, metabolic markers, such as BMI, waist circumference, body fat mass, insulin, HbA1c, and lipid profiles, were significantly higher in the priest group than the control group (all p < 0.05). After adjusting for covariates, the priest group had a significantly higher likelihood of having diabetes (OR = 1.651, 95% CI 1.146–2.379) or prediabetes (OR = 3.270, 95% CI 2.471–4.327) compared with the controls. Conclusions: This study showed that Catholic priests have higher risks of diabetes and prediabetes compared with the general population, and these risks increase with age. Further large-scale prospective studies are required to confirm these relationships.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)655-661
Number of pages7
JournalActa Diabetologica
Volume60
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research was supported by grant of the Institute of Clinical Medicine Research in the Yeouido St. Mary’s hospital, Catholic University of Korea.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, Springer-Verlag Italia S.r.l., part of Springer Nature.

Keywords

  • Catholic priest
  • Diabetes mellitus
  • Insulin resistance
  • Religion

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