Ethnic differences in risk factors and prevalence of type 2 diabetes in the adult population of the Russian Federation (a sub-analysis of the NATION study)

A retrospective analysis of the database of the NATION nation-wide epidemiological cross-sectional study was carried out. Depending on the self-declared ethnicity and anthropological characteristics, the following ethnic groups were identified: “Mongoloid population”, “Peoples of the Volga region”, “Peoples of the North Caucasus”, “Peoples of Transcaucasia”, “Russians”. The analysis consisted of several stages and included: analysis of the selected groups’ anthropometrics, analysis of the prevalence of carbohydrate metabolism disorders in the selected ethnic groups, analysis of ethnic-specific T2D risk factors, and analysis of region-specific factors affecting the prevalence of carbohydrate metabolism disorders in various ethnic groups. We defined carbohydrate metabolism disorders as diabetes and/or a prediabetes condition. In accordance with the WHO criteria, HbA1c≥6.5% was interpreted as diabetes, whereas values ​​in the range of 5.7%≤HbA1c