In a study from the University of Manchester, scientists found an NHS behavior-change program has been linked to a big reduction in the risk of developing type 2 diabetes in adults with raised blood sugars.
They found that the risk of diabetes progression was 20% lower in people with pre-diabetes referred to the NHS Diabetes Prevention Program (NDPP) when compared to similar patients not referred to NDPP.
The NHS Healthier You Diabetes Prevention Program in England is offered to non-diabetic adults with raised blood sugars—or pre-diabetes—providing exercise and dietary advice to help reduce people’s risk of developing the disease.
Across the 2,209 GP practices for which the researchers had data, more than 700,000 people were identified with pre-diabetes and about 100,000 had a code in their health records indicating they were referred to the program.
In the study, the team examined 18,470 patients referred to NDPP who were matched to 51,331 similar patients not referred to NDPP.
The probability of converting to type 2 diabetes at 36 months after referral was 12.7% for those referred to the NDPP and 15.4% for those not referred to the NDPP.
The mechanism for the difference is likely to be through weight reduction, with previous work showing that people who attended the NHS DPP were linked to a big reduction in body weight—the key factor in reducing risk—of 2.3 kg on average.
In addition, prior work also showed levels of HbA1c—the average blood sugar levels for the previous two to three months—reduced by a significant 1.26 mmol/mol.
Most of the previous results have shown that weight loss is the key factor in reducing risk of the disease; increased BMI was also a key factor.
These findings suggest that the NDPP appears to be successful in reducing the progression from non-diabetic high blood sugar to type 2 diabetes.
If you care about diabetes, please read studies that not all whole grain foods could benefit people with diabetes, and honey could help control blood sugar.
For more information about nutrition, please see recent studies that blueberries strongly benefit people with metabolic syndrome, and results showing vitamin D could improve blood pressure in people with diabetes.
The study was conducted by Dr. Rathi Ravindrarajah et al and published in the journal PLoS Medicine.
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