Study results in on metformin and lifestyle interventions for diabetes

July 27, 2020

Article

Study results show diabetes prevention is possible long-term with lifestyle intervention or metformin. The original 3-year Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) study¹ continued into a long-term follow up study called the Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study (DPPOS), which examined patients with prediabetes and high risk for type 2 diabetes for 22 years, on average. Those patients who received either metformin or lifestyle intervention were less likely to develop diabetes than patients in the placebo group.

The first study, DPP, conducted in 1996-2001, revealed a 58 percent drop in diabetes incidence with lifestyle intervention and a 31 percent drop with metformin use, compared to the placebo group.

The follow-up study, DPPOS, revealed a 25 percent drop in diabetes incidence with lifestyle intervention and an 18 percent drop with metformin use, compared to the placebo group.

The study also found that participants who did not develop diabetes had significantly lower rates of eye (57 percent), kidney (37 percent), and major cardiovascular disease (39 percent), according to a statement.

"I think it is important for providers and patients with prediabetes to know that even after 22 years, adults at high risk for diabetes have continued to benefit from metformin or prior intensive lifestyle modification in preventing or delaying" diabetes,” says Christine Lee, MD, program director of the Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolic Diseases, at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), in a statement.

Study results can be viewed at: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00038727.

Reference

1. Knowler WC, Barrett-Connor E, Fowler SE, Hamman RF, Lachin JM, Walker EA, Nathan DM; Diabetes Prevention Program Research Group. Reduction in the incidence of type 2 diabetes with lifestyle intervention or metformin. N Engl J Med. 2002 Feb 7;346(6):393-403.