Progression to diabetes and regression to normoglycemia in pre-diabetic subjects: results from a pragmatic community trial in a middle-income country.

Abstract

Purpose: The incidence of prediabetes has been on the rise, indicating a growing public health concern, as individuals with prediabetes are at higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes. This study aimed to determine the effects of simple interventions on the regression of pre-diabetes status into normoglycemia and also prevent progression to diabetes in a pragmatic community trial.

Methods: A total of 2073 (761 intervention; 1,312 controls) participants with pre-diabetes were included in the present secondary data analysis; cases with diabetes or normoglycemia were identified during nine years of follow-up. We utilized multinomial logistic regression to calculate relative risk reductions (RRR, 95% CIs) for educational interventions targeting lifestyle changes in both men and women. Additionally, we employed a linear regression model that considered the ordinal outcomes ranging from normal to prediabetes and diabetes.

Results: In men, after adjusting for confounders, the intervention group had a 53% (95% CI = 1.11-2.10) more significant chance of returning to normoglycemia than the control group after three years of follow-up. In addition, men in the intervention group also had an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes than men in the control group (RRR = 1.53, 95% CI = 1.02-2.31) after three years of follow-up. These findings among men remained consistent even after a six-year follow-up period. In women, after adjusting for age, the chance of returning to normoglycemia after three years in the intervention group was 1.30 times higher than in women in the control group (95% CI = 1.00-1.69), which disappeared after adjusting for other covariates or after six years of follow-up. The results of the regression analysis showed that the intervention had no effect on changing the status of the outcome from normal to prediabetes and diabetes.

Conclusion: We could not demonstrate any effect of a simple intervention in improving prediabetes. This high-risk population may require more gender-specific intensive interventions and attention.