In a Diabetes Special Issue of The Lancet, researchers demonstrate that group-based lifestyle interventions of diet and exercise for a period of six years may prevent or delay diabetes for up to 14 years following the intervention. It is not clear, however, that lifestyle interventions also reduce the incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mortality.
There have been several major clinical trials in various countries that have demonstrated how people with impaired glucose tolerances can reduce their likelihood of diabetes due to lifestyle interventions. Researchers, though, still have questions regarding the length of time after intervention that the strategies remain effective. To investigate this issue, Professor Guangwei Li, (China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Beijing, China), Dr Ping Zhang (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA), and colleagues conducted the China Da Qing Diabetes Prevention Outcome Study (CDQDPOS) - analyzing 20 years of patient follow-up data.
The patients who participated in the study all had impaired glucose tolerance and came from 33 clinics in China. In 1986, the researchers randomly assigned the patients to one of three lifestyle intervention groups (diet, exercise, or diet and exercise) or to the control group. Over a period of six years (until 1992), the patients experienced active intervention, and a 2006 follow-up provided data that would be used to assess the interventions' long-term effects on main outcomes such as diabetes incidence, CVD incidence and mortality, and all-cause mortality.
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