Reduced 10-Year Risk of Coronary Heart Disease in Patients Who Participated in a Community-Based Diabetes Prevention Program

Abstract

OBJECTIVE—We evaluated whether participation in a community-based group diabetes prevention program might lead to relative changes in composite 10-year coronary heart disease (CHD) risk for overweight adults with abnormal glucose metabolism. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—We used the UK Prospective Diabetes Study engine to estimate CHD risk for group-lifestyle and brief counseling (control) groups. Between-group risk changes after 4 and 12 months were compared using ANCOVA. RESULTS—Baseline 10-year risk was similar between treatment groups (P = 0.667). At 4 and 12 months, the intervention group experienced significant decreases in 10-year risk from baseline (−3.28%, P < 0.001; and −2.23%, P = 0.037) compared with control subjects (−0.78%, P = 0.339; and +1.88%, P = 0.073). Between-group differences were statistically significant and increased from the 4- to 12-month visits. CONCLUSIONS—Community-based delivery of the Diabetes Prevention Program lifestyle intervention could be a promising strategy to prevent both CHD and type 2 diabetes in adults with pre-diabetes.