Task force recommends combined diet and physical activity effort for diabetes prevention

The Community Preventive Services Task Force recommended the use of combined diet and physical activity promotion programs for people at increased risk for type 2 diabetes in a recent clinical guideline.

The guideline was published in Annals of Internal Medicine on July 14, along with 2 evidence reviews that supported the recommendation, which was targeted at health care systems, communities, and other implementers.

One review, which included 53 studies, found that combined diet and exercise programs were effective at decreasing diabetes incidence and improving cardiometabolic risk factors in high-risk patients and that more intensive programs were more effective. The other review, of 28 studies, found that such programs are cost-effective and that costs are lower when they are delivered to groups in community or primary care settings.

An accompanying editorial called on clinicians to “assume a greater role in performing recommended screening and linking high-risk patients with combined diet and physical activity promotion programs” and recommended the National Diabetes Prevention Program registry and the YMCA of the USA as resources.