Prevention for metabolic syndrome through the lifestyle modification intervention in pre-diabetic subjects: A hospital based study in Taiwan

The purpose is to design a education program and assess the effectiveness for pre-diabetics.

We used a study with 2-parallel groups’ randomized controlled trial testing strategies to prevent metabolic syndrome in pre-diabetic individuals. The subjects with elevated fasting plasma glucose concentrations (FPG: 100-125 mg/dl) or impaired glucose tolerances (2-h PG on the 75-g OGTT: 140-199 mg/dl) were enrolled. We randomly assigned 249 pre-diabetic individuals to lifestyle intervention that promoted weight loss through modified diet and increased physical activity (intervention groups ) or receive regular diabetes education (control group). The goal of the intervention groups was to lose 7% of initial body weight. All participants were monitored with pretest (baseline), 3th months, 6th months and 12th months. Participants were observed the related information of risk factors through questionnaires, medical examination and medical record. We performed analysis according to the intention to treat principle.

A total of 249 participants were enrolled and randomly assigned the intervention (n=154) or control group (n=95). The average age was 60.77±10.8 years, 50.60% were men, and the mean body mass index was 27.29±13.57. After intervention, participants in the intervention group had greater reductions in weight, waist and BMI than control group, but the difference were not significant except waist (p=0.019). The fasting blood sugar from baseline to 12 months was -0.9±9.2 mg/dL in intervention group and 0.2±7.9 mg/dL in the control group (p=0.295). The numbers of metabolic syndrome risk factors was significant increase in control group (mean difference 0.30±0.87, p=0.001) but not in the intervention group.