Abstract: Objective To investigate the association between diabetes mellitus risk factors(blood sugar,serum insulin,blood lipids and blood pressure)and a set of anthropometric parameters,and to determine the variables correlating most greatly with the canonical variables.Methods A multistage stratified sampling was applied to select 1960 inhibitants,who are no less than 40 years old,from Huayang Community,Changning district,Shanghai.Datas including height,weight,circumference of waist,abdominal,hip,thigh and blood sugar,serum insulin,blood lipids,blood pressure were available with 1867 subjects.After calculating body mass index(BMI).waist/hip ratio(WHR),abdominal/hip ratio(AHR),waist/thigh ratio(WTR) and conicity index(CI),the association of a set of anthropometric parameters with the DM risk factors was explored by SAS partial canonical correlation analysis.Results Canonical correlation were statistically significant between the anthropometric parameters and the DM risk factors in both sex groups(the first canonical coefficient was 0.61,0.50 respectively for male and female groups).Of the anthropometric parameters,WHR had the highest standardized coefficient and correlation coefficient,while AHR had the second highest coefficients of the anthropometric parameters in male group.In female group,BMI had the highest coefficients and WHR had the second highest coefficients.Of the DM risk factors,serum insulin had the highest standardized coefficient and correlation coefficient.Diastolic blood pressure and TG has the second highest for both groups.Conclusion(1)The anthropometric parameters correlated significantly with the DM risk factors(blood sugar,blood insulin,blood lipids and blood pressure);those who were more obese were more liable to have unbalance in metabolism;(2)The correlation between seriuminsulin and anthropometr ic parameters was the highest among the DM risk factors;serum insulin was most greatly influenced by obesity;(3)WHR was the most valuable anthropometric parameter to indicate DM risk for male group;BMI was the best anthropometric parameter to indicate DM risk for female group.