Endocrine Society, June 15-18

The annual meeting of the Endocrine Society was held from June 15 to 18 in Chicago and attracted approximately 7,000 participants from around the world, including clinicians, academicians, allied health professionals, and others interested in endocrine and metabolic disorders. The conference highlighted recent advances in the diagnosis and management of obesity, endocrine disorders, diabetes, growth hormone, and thyroid diseases.

In one study, Gina Armer, the senior director of Lilly Diabetes in Indianapolis, and colleagues found that compared to employees with normal weight, employees with overweight and obesity have higher loss of work productivity, as measured by absenteeism, short-term disability (STD), long-term disability (LTD), and workers' compensation (WC).

Using MarketScan databases, the authors evaluated 719,482 employees with and without obesity. The researchers found that the number of hours absent and the percentage of employees with STD, LTD, or WC claims all increased with each higher weight category. It was also noted that each decade of higher age was associated with increased hours of absence (8 percent) or work loss event (STD, 16 percent; LTD, 50 percent; WC, 4 percent). After adjusting for differences in baseline characteristics between weight cohorts, attributable estimated costs to the employer due to the loss of productivity associated with absenteeism, STD, LTD, and WC were $891, $623, $41, and $112 higher per year, respectively, for individuals in the obesity class III cohort relative to the normal weight cohort.

"Given the substantial burden of overweight and obesity on employee health and function that was demonstrated by this study, employers should focus on building tailored interventions that could be beneficial in improving the health of these individuals," Armer said.

Funding for this study was provided by Eli Lilly.

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In another study, Amanda Godoi, M.D., of the Cardiff University School of Medicine in Wales, and colleagues found that closed-loop systems significantly improve hemoglobin A1C (HbA1c) levels, percent time in range (TIR) 70 to 180 mg/dL, glucose variability, and risk of nocturnal and overall hypoglycemia, but provide no significant reduction in the risk of adverse events.

The authors conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of 13 randomized controlled trials which included 1,194 adult patients, and compared the use of closed-looped systems versus usual control during a period of 12 to 96 weeks. The findings augment the certainty about the beneficial effects of the continuous and prolonged use of closed-loop systems on glycemic outcomes. Meanwhile, the risk of hypoglycemia in children remains the same as current therapies, and more studies with prolonged use of fully closed-loop, or bihormonal systems, are needed to assess this issue.

"Our findings show that the prolonged use of hybrid closed-loop systems is safe and effective for use in the pediatric population with diabetes," Godoi said. "Our study also has important implications to the design of future trials, which should consider placing significant focus on patient education, device functioning, and prolonged assessment of new automated devices, such as bihormonal systems, to advance the benefits of this technology for patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus."

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Aayush Visaria, M.D., of the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and colleagues found that obesity is more prevalent in our society than previously estimated and that body mass index (BMI) alone is not a sufficient indicator, as it has very poor sensitivity in detecting obesity.

Using information from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the authors identified nonpregnant U.S. adults aged 20 to 59 years between 2011 and 2018 with whole body dual x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scan data and categorized their BMI by ethnicity. The researchers found that nearly three in four young-to-middle-aged U.S. adults have obesity via total body fat percentage estimated from DEXA scans, including more than half of whom are incorrectly classified as having nonobese BMIs. In addition, adding waist circumference reduced the number of people mistakenly classified as not having obesity by 23 percent. Asian and Hispanic adults with normal BMIs were more likely to have obesity, and were more likely to have a greater proportion of abdominal fat, than non-Hispanic White adults. Non-Hispanic Black adults had a significantly lower likelihood of obesity at normal/overweight BMI ranges, as well as a lower proportion of abdominal fat.

"BMI by itself may not be a great indicator of health and vastly underestimates obesity, thus it likely should be used in conjunction with other markers of adiposity like waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, waist-to-height ratio, as well as other markers of cardiovascular health (i.e., blood pressure, blood sugar, lipids)," Visaria said. "More research needs to be done to fully understand the discordance between BMI and true obesity and the implications it can have on health outcomes."

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ENDO: Women With Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Experience More Body Image Concerns

TUESDAY, June 27, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) experience greater body image concerns than women without PCOS, according to research presented at the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society, held from June 15 to 18 in Chicago.

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ENDO: Testosterone-Replacement Noninferior to Placebo for Cardiovascular Events

THURSDAY, June 22, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- For men with preexisting cardiovascular disease or a high risk for cardiovascular disease and hypogonadism, testosterone-replacement therapy is noninferior to placebo for the incidence of major adverse cardiac events, according to a study published online June 16 in the New England Journal of Medicine to coincide with the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society, held from June 15 to 18 in Chicago.

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ENDO: Cases of Gestational Diabetes Increased During Pandemic

TUESDAY, June 20, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Diagnosis of gestational diabetes mellitus increased as the pandemic wore on, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society, held from June 15 to 18 in Chicago.

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