GDF15 and diabetes mellitus: Statistical differences were observed between the 2 groups regarding the covariates of gender, age, education level, marital status, race, PIR, smoking status, alcohol consumption, BMI, Hemoglobin (HG), ALT, AST, LDH, potassium, uric acid, albumin, serum iron, calcium, creatinine, HDL-C, TC, diabetes, and hypertension (all P < .05) (Table 1).