Lifestyle interventions in persons with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) delay the onset of diabetes, but freedom from complications is a major goal of diabetes prevention and management. The extent that lifestyle intervention can delay the onset of the common but serious complications of diabetes is ill-defined. We assessed freedom from any serious diabetes-related complication in the 30-year follow-up data from the Da Qing Diabetes Prevention study in which 576 adults with IGT, randomized to control or lifestyle intervention groups for six-years, were followed from the time of randomization to determine the onset of diabetes and occurrence of any serious diabetes-related complication defined as CVD events or death, severe retinopathy, nephropathy, neuropathy, or death due to acute diabetes complications or infection. We estimated differences between the intervention and control groups in the incidence and time free of serious complications. Lifestyle interventions significantly increased the time free of major serious diabetes-related complications (Table). The study provides yet further evidence supporting the value of implementing lifestyle interventions in persons with IGT.
Q. Gong: None. P. Zhang: None. J. Wang: None. Y. Chen: None. Y. An: None. X. Feng: None. Y.J. Cheng: None. J. Ma: None. P.H. Bennett: Advisory Panel; Self; World Health Organization. Stock/Shareholder; Self; Eli Lilly and Company, Pfizer Inc., Unilever, UnitedHealth Group. Other Relationship; Self; American Diabetes Association, European Association for the Study of Diabetes, European Diabetic Nephropathy Study Group, International Diabetes Federation, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health. G. Li: None.
