Dietary intake, exercise, obesity and noncommunicable disease in rural and urban populations of three Pacific Island countries.

Dietary intake surveys of rural and urban communities in three Pacific Island countries were conducted using an adjusted 24-hour dietary recall method. Dietary survey samples were drawn from noncommunicable disease surveys of Melanesians and Indians in Fiji, Micronesians in Kiribati and Melanesians in Vanuatu. Comparisons of total energy and macronutrient intakes and of obesity, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, serum cholesterol and physical activity levels revealed similar rural/urban trends.

Impaired glucose tolerance in Kiribati.

Subjects with impaired glucose tolerance have been shown to have a higher risk for subsequent diabetes and increased susceptibility to atherosclerosis. Data obtained from a cross-sectional medical survey in Kiribati in 1981 have been studied for evidence as to whether impaired glucose tolerance is a truly separate category of glucose intolerance. Subjects in the impaired glucose tolerance category were compared to both normal and diabetic subjects with respect to the mean values of certain variables including plasma glucose, body mass index, plasma cholesterol, plasma triglycerides, and systolic blood pressure.

Ethnic differences in susceptibility to non-insulin-dependent diabetes. A comparative study of two urbanized Micronesian populations.

Two urbanized Micronesian populations were recently studied by population-based diabetes surveys. These were Nauruans living on the island of Nauru, and Gilbertese resident on the islet of Betio, in the Republic of Kiribati (1982 and 1981, respectively). Nauruans are known to suffer from a very high prevalence of non-insulin-dependent (type II) diabetes mellitus (NIDDM).

Non-insulin-dependent diabetes (NIDDM) in a newly independent Pacific nation: the Republic of Kiribati.

A population-based survey of 2938 subjects has demonstrated a high prevalence of non-insulin-dependent diabetes (NIDDM) in the Micronesian population of Kiribati (formerly the Gilbert Islands). This finding provides further support for evidence from Nauru, Guam, and the Marshall Islands that Micronesians are particularly susceptible to NIDDM. The age-standardized prevalence was over twice as high in an urban, as compared with a rural, sample (9.