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PREDIAS program reduces risk for Type 2 diabetes
1 July 2009
MedWire News: Study results show that a diabetes prevention program known as PREDIAS successfully reduces weight, fasting glucose, and lipids, and increases physical activity of individuals at risk for developing Type 2 diabetes.
“Meta-analyses have shown that Type 2 diabetes can be effectively prevented or delayed by lifestyle modification,” explain researchers Norbert Hermanns (Diabetes Centre Mergentheim, Bad Mergentheim, Germany) and team.
They developed a group diabetes prevention program called PREDIAS based on the Diabetes Prevention Program. PREDIAS consisted of 12 lessons lasting 90 minutes each, with the first eight lessons occurring weekly and the last four bi-monthly. Participants were also given a book about diabetes prevention containing a wide variety of useful information.
In this study, Hermanns and colleagues randomly assigned 182 overweight German-speaking individuals (body mass index of 26 kg/m2 or above) with impaired glucose tolerance or fasting glucose to participate in the PREDIAS program (n=91) or form part of a control group (n=91) for 1 year.
The control group received the same written information as the PREDIAS group, but did not attend any group sessions.
The authors report that at 1 year, the PREDIAS group had lost more weight than controls, with an average reduction of 3.8 kg versus 1.4 kg. The intervention also led to a greater improvement in fasting glucose, which dropped by 4.3 mg/dl in the PREDIAS group and increased by 1.8 mg/dl in the control group, as well as more restrained eating behavior.
Physical activity was also improved by the lessons, with the PREDIAS group participating for an average of 46.6 minutes each week compared with only 17.9 minutes a week for the control group. Triglycerides and total cholesterol were also reduced more in the PREDIAS than the control group, but the difference between groups was not statistically significant.
As all these factors are linked to development of Type 2 diabetes, their improvement suggests a significant reduction in diabetes risk, conclude Hermanns et al in the journal Diabetes Care.
