Diet and exercise play a big role in who gets diabetes, but doctors say your address could be a major factor depending on how close it puts you to pollution.

Researchers at Ohio State University Medical Center said they have found a strong connection between diabetes and air pollution.

Dr. Sanjay Rajagopalan said air pollution not only affects your lungs, it also causes problems in other organs. His research team exposed mice to the same dirty air that many of us breathe every day.

"Every mouse that we exposed to high-fat diet, along with exposure to inhaled particulates, had marked worsening of diabetes," Rajagopalan said.

Public information on the study did not include details on how much more likely those mice were to contract diabetes, nor what the overall rate of diabetes was in the study.

The tests showed that air pollution caused inflammation, increased body fat and interfered with how the mice processed insulin. The effects were strongest when combined with poor diet, according to a news release on the work.

One in six people in the U.S. lives with poor air quality, the release said.

Rajagopalan also noted that diabetes rates are highest in urban areas, which often have the worst air.