Virtual diabetes-tailored weight management program benefits adults with type 2 diabetes
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SAN DIEGO — A virtual diabetes-tailored weight management program resulted in beneficial and clinically meaningful effects on glucose levels, body weight and diabetes distress among adults with type 2 diabetes.
“The clinical implications are important because they did result in what we feel is clinically meaningful reductions in blood sugar and glycemic control with weight loss of over 5% over 6 months, and then also improvements in such things as diabetes distress and impact of quality of life,” John W. Apolzan, PhD, FTOS, associate professor and nutrition scientist at Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, told Healio.
This prospective 24-week single arm, three-site clinical trial, presented at ObesityWeek, included 136 adults with type 2 diabetes (mean age, 56.8 years; 80.2% women) and a BMI between 27 kg/m2 and 50 kg/m2. Most participants (62%) had a baseline HbA1c between 7% and 8%, and 38% of participants had a baseline HbA1c between 8% and 11%. All participants participated in WeightWatchers 24-week virtual diabetes-tailored weight management program. Researchers conducted assessments at baseline and 12 and 24 weeks; 83% of participants completed the study.
The primary outcome was HbA1c change at week 24. Secondary outcomes included changes in body weight and Diabetes Distress Scale score.
Compared with participants with an HbA1c of more than 8%, participants with an HbA1c of 8% or less had a lower mean baseline BMI (36.6 kg/m2 vs. 37.4 kg/m2), higher mean baseline weight (99.7 kg vs. 103.5 kg) and higher mean total Diabetes Distress Scale score (2.1 vs. 2.7).
Both participant groups experienced a decrease in HbA1c at week 12 (0.3% and 1.1%, respectively) and at week 24 (0.4% and 1.4%, respectively). In addition, both participant groups also experienced a decrease in body weight at week 12 (4% and 3.72%, respectively) and at week 24 (5.1% and 5%, respectively).
Diabetes regimen distress scores also improved from baseline for participants with an HbA1c of 8% or less (0.3 at 12 weeks and 0.4 at 24 weeks; P < .05 for both). Participants with an HbA1c more than 8% experienced improved Diabetes Distress Scale scores from baseline (0.4 at 12 weeks and 0.6 at 24 weeks; P < .01 for both).
According to Apolzan, these results are also important as this was a virtual lifestyle intervention that allows for people with affordability and other access issues to be able to access this method more easily than in-person methods.
“Things such as linking [this intervention] with potential prescription drugs, ... having real time glucose monitoring and linking the lifestyle intervention with glucose and how well the participants are doing with their blood sugar would be important next steps,” Apolzan said.
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Apolzan JW, et al. Oral-079. Presented at: ObesityWeek; Nov. 1-4, 2022; San Diego.
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