Objective: Recent evidence indicates that diet-induced inflammation is related to chronical diseases including type 2 diabetes mellitus. This study aimed to examine the relationship between the dietary inflammatory index, which quantifies the inflammatory burden of the diet, and type 2 diabetes mellitus risk among obese women.

Methods: This case–control study, including 40 obese cases with type 2 diabetes mellitus and 40 obese controls without type 2 diabetes mellitus, aged between 30 and 50, was conducted from September 2019 to March 2020 in Ankara, Turkey. The Dietary Inflammatory Index was calculated based on the food frequency questionnaire. The logistic regression model was used to estimate the association between Dietary Inflammatory Index and the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Linear regression model was used to estimate beta coefficients for glucose metabolism markers.

Results: Subjects with higher Dietary Inflammatory Index scores (i.e., with a more pro-inflammatory diet) had a higher risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (odds ratio = 8.57; 95% CI: 1.24, 59.44, P = .03). In addition, as a continuous variable, the Dietary Inflammatory Index scores had a significant positive relationship with insulin (β = 0.259, P = .026) and homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (β = 0.265, P = .015) after multivariable adjustment.

Conclusion: The present study suggests that higher Dietary Inflammatory Index scores, corresponding to more pro-inflammatory diets, were positively associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus risk among obese women. In addition, the Dietary Inflammatory Index scores and insulin resistance were positively related. As a result of the findings, an anti-inflammatory diet can help prevent insulin resistance and reduce the risk of diabetes.

Keywords: Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII), diabetes, inflammation, obesity