CANADIAN JOURNAL OF DIABETES CANADIAN JOURNAL OF DIABETES. 2008;32(3):190-197.

Diabetes is increasing in prevalence worldwide. This study investigated whether the elevated prevalence of diabetes in lower-income neighbourhoods could be explained by higher rates of overweight and obesity. A total of 7434 patients who attended respiratory clinics in 2 Ontario cities were linked to administrative databases to ascertain diagnoses of diabetes, chronic obstructive pul-monary disease and asthma. Body mass index (BMI) was obtained from clinic databases and median neighbourhood income from the Canadian census. Prevalence ratios were estimated by log-linear multiple binary regression. BMI and neighbourhood income were independently associ-ated with the prevalence of diabetes. At any level of BMI, subjects living in richer neighbourhoods were less likely to have been diagnosed with diabetes than subjects in poore