Physique of Diabetics

Abstract

The author analysed body height and weight together with Rohrer's index of 715 diabetics treated as out-patients of the Bielany Hospital at Warsaw. Of this number 424 were women and 291 men with average age 56.3 and 49.8 years respectively. Among all patients about 16 percent had familial history of diabetes, and about 26 percent showed symptoms of angiopathy. Body height of diabetics - was found to be not substantially different from that of healthy people while diabetics on the average were much heavier than the control group (table 1). The outstanding exception from this rule is a subgroup of male patients with hereditary diabetes (as determined from family history) requiring treatment with insulin (see first row of table 2) which are some 23 kilogrames lighter than control males and consequently of leptosomatic body build. The rest of diabeties was found to be on the average of a stout (pyknomorph) physique.