ArticleBMC public health2026
The association between adult height and the incidence of diabetes in a Japanese working population: a prospective study exploring the possible role of cohort effects.
Article in BMC public health, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
19 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAdult height may reflect early-life environmental conditions that influence the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM). While taller height has been linked to lower DM risk, evidence from East Asia remains limited and inconsistent. Given that DM in East Asians often occurs at lower BMI levels, population-specific research is needed. We examined the prospective association between adult height and incident DM in a large Japanese working population, focusing on differences by sex and birth cohort.
methodsData were obtained from annual health checkups of 63,264 workers from 12 companies in Japan, comprising 54,188 men and 9076 women aged 20-64 years at baseline. Participants were classified by quartile of adult height for each sex. DM was defined as either when the participants had glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) ≥ 6.5%, random glucose ≥ 200 mg/dL, fasting glucose ≥ 126 mg/dL, or when they were receiving antidiabetic treatment. Time ratios (TRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the duration of remaining free from DM were estimated using a sex-stratified accelerated failure time model. We also examined whether the association varied by birth cohort, by comparing individuals born in 1960 or earlier with those born later.
resultsDuring a median follow-up period of 9.4 years, 5829 men and 448 women developed DM. For the highest vs. lowest height categories, after adjusting for age, body mass index, smoking, hypertension, and dyslipidemia, the TRs were 1.07 (95% CI, 1.02-1.13) in men and 0.98 (95% CI: 0.91-1.06) in women, respectively. When we stratified by birth cohorts, the height-DM association among men was more pronounced in the older cohort compared to the younger cohort.
conclusionsIn a large cohort of Japanese workers, taller stature was associated with a prolonged duration of DM-free survival among men, particularly those in older cohorts. In women, however, the association between height and diabetes risk was inconclusive and warrants further investigation. The impact of stature on the risk of DM may be affected by sex and cohort effects, necessitating further research to disentangle these effects.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.