New research indicates that providing a diabetes prevention programme to adults with prediabetes at age 50 could significantly reduce the onset of diabetes for older adults
Nearly one-third of US adults have prediabetes.
The study focuses on those individuals with prediabetes who have the highest risk of developing diabetes.
"We found that bearing a share of the costs of efforts to help Americans with prediabetes alter their lifestyles would save private insurance companies and Medicare more than they would eventually pay to treat persons who will develop diabetes without preventive treatment," said Tom Hoerger, RTI International senior health economics researcher.
The study, co-authored by Hoerger and RTI researcher Katherine Hicks and published in the June issue of the journal Diabetes Care, found that providing lifestyle interventions that encourage weight loss and exercise for 50-year-old persons with prediabetes could reduce the onset of new cases of diabetes in this group by 37 percentage points at age 65.
The research showed that if private health insurers and Medicare each contribute a share of the costs and persons with prediabetes make modest copayments, private insurers and Medicare would cover the costs of diabetes prevention programs and the health implications of diabetes would decline.
The study was conducted by researchers at RTI, Indiana University School of Medicine, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the University of Michigan Health System.
It was funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Kidney Disease.
RTI's effort was supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
