Diabetes: Prevention Programs

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 29.1 million Americans have diabetes and 1.7 million adults are newly diagnosed with diabetes mellitus each year. The direct medical costs of diabetes were estimated to be $176 billion in 2012. Interventions to prevent diabetes have the potential to save the health care system substantial medical costs by reducing the incidence of diabetes and its associated complications. The Diabetes Prevention Program Trial (DPPT) demonstrated that the incidence of diabetes could be reduced using intensive diet and lifestyle counseling for individuals at very high risk for diabetes. Since publication of the trial results, many commercial programs have been developed to implement a scalable version of the DPPT intervention using fewer resources.

Date of review: June 2016

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Intervention of interest: Diabetes prevention programs