DPPOS at 22 Years: ‘Diabetes Prevention Is Possible’ Long Term

Adults at high risk for type 2 diabetes who had received either lifestyle intervention or metformin in the 3-year Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) and continued in the Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study (DPPOS) were less likely to develop diabetes than patients in the placebo group over an average 22-year follow-up.  

DPPOS chair David M. Nathan, MD, and other study investigators presented findings last week during the virtual American Diabetes Association (ADA) 80th Scientific Sessions.

Now, 22 years after they enrolled in the DPP, patients were on average 72 years old and those in the original lifestyle intervention or metformin group were 25% and 18% less likely to have diabetes, respectively.

And participants who did not develop diabetes had significantly lower rates of eye, kidney, and major cardiovascular disease, at 57%, 37%, and 39%, respectively, according to a statement from the ADA.

“What we have shown is that diabetes prevention is possible,” Nathan, from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, told Medscape Medical News in an interview.

However, few physicians are referring patients with prediabetes to the program. According to a 2019 CDC study, only 5% of individuals with prediabetes and 0.4% of those with an elevated risk of diabetes had been told by their physician to participate in a diabetes prevention program (JAMA Netw Open. 2019;2:E193160).

DPPOS is supported by the NIDDK, National Cancer Institute, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institute on Aging, National Eye Institute, Office of Research on Women’s Health, and CDC. Merck supplied the metformin. 

ADA 2020 Scientific Sessions. June 16, 2020.