By Colin Kenny, Editor – Diabetes Distilled
Investigators associated with the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) and its follow-up study used the data gathered to identify reliable predictors of long-term weight loss that could lead to improved weight management. They discovered that in individuals with weight loss of at least 5% after 1 year, those originally assigned to metformin had the greatest weight loss in follow-up years 6 to 15. Older age and the amount of weight initially lost were the most consistent predictors of long-term weight loss maintenance.
Researchers from the DPP and the DPP Outcomes Study, where patients were followed up for 15 years,decided to retrospectively examine their data to see which features predicted good outcomes. This study included 3,234 participants who were randomised to metformin 850 mg twice daily or intensive lifestyle intervention or placebo. They examined the 1,066 patients who had at least 5% weight loss after 1 year in the original study. The majority (640; 62.6%) were from the lifestyle group, 289 (28.5%) were from the metformin group and 137 (13.4%) were from the placebo group.
When they followed these patients over 15 years, the group that kept the most weight off was taking metformin. Patients in the metformin group maintained a 6.2% weight loss compared with baseline, whereas the lifestyle group had maintained only a 3.7% weight loss and the placebo group a 2.8% weight loss.
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