Associations between urinary glyphosate and diabetes mellitus in the US general adult: a cross-sectional study from NHANES 2013-2016

Glyphosate-based herbicides (GBHs) are used extensively around the world and have become the leading agrochemicals. However, study about the association between glyphosate exposure and the risk of diabetes mellitus (DM) is scarce. This study used 4 years of NHANES data (2013-2016) to further investigate the association. A total of 2535 participants were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. The baseline information and urinary glyphosate levels in diabetic and non-diabetic groups were compared. Using multivariable logistic regression mode, we explored the association between both the continuous and categorical forms of urinary glyphosate and DM risk. Further subgroup analyses based on categorical covariates were also conducted. Urinary glyphosate levels were 0.42 ng/ml in participants with diabetes and 0.34 ng/ml in participants without diabetes (P < 0.05). As a continuous variable, ln-transformed urinary glyphosate was significantly associated with an increased risk of DM in the most adjusted model (OR 1.28, 95% CI 1.03-1.57). However, the association was not significant in the most adjusted categorical model (P > 0.05).In further subgroup analyses, the associations remained significant in several subgroups. This study provides new evidence that glyphosate exposure was associated with a higher risk of diabetes in the American general adult population.