Lifestyle Intervention Is Effective for Glycemic Control in Elderly Persons

An intensive lifestyle intervention can help overweight or obese elderly persons with type 2 diabetes lose fat mass and improve glycemic control, according to a new study.

The first 6 months of data from the study were presented at the Endocrine Society’s 98th Annual Meeting & Expo in Boston, MA, on April 1, 2016. The study is ongoing.

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Overweight or obese persons with type 2 diabetes face physical limitations to losing weight because of physical inactivity in advancing age. Although lifestyle intervention is the primary therapy for type 2 diabetes, it is controversial in older adults because of the chance that it may exacerbate sarcopenia and frailty.

To conduct their study, researchers followed 13 participants aged 65 to 85 years who had type 2 diabetes and were overweight or obese—defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of 27 kg/m² or more.

Participants were randomly assigned to either an intensive lifestyle intervention group, which included a weekly diet class and supervised exercise training 3 times per week, or a healthy lifestyle control group, which met once per month to discuss nutritional and diabetes information.

Researchers tracked glycemic control, body weight and composition, physical function, aerobic capacity, and bone mineral density and bone quality.

After 6-months of follow-up, researchers found that participants in the lifestyle intervention group had lost more fat mass and visceral fat mass, had significantly improved glycemic control, and had preserved more lean body mass than those in the healthy lifestyle control group.

In addition, participants in the lifestyle intervention group had improved physical function, aerobic capacity, and bone mineral density.

“These preliminary findings suggest that an intensive lifestyle intervention is not only feasible but importantly confers beneficial effects on glucose control, body composition, and physical function in older adults with type 2 diabetes,” the researchers concluded. “Further, they provide evidence that bone quality may improve independent of changes in bone mineral density in response to lifestyle intervention. Long-term studies involving a larger sample are needed to follow up on these encouraging results and examine underlying mechanisms.”

—Amanda Balbi

Reference:
Celli A, Blevin D, Barnouin Y, Colleluori G, Villareal RC, Villareal DT. Intensive lifestyle intervention in older adults with diabetes improves glycemic control, body composition, physical function, and bone quality. Presented at: Endocrine Society 98th Annual Meeting & Expo; April 1, 2016; Boston, MA. https://endo.confex.com/endo/2016endo/webprogram/Paper25882.html. Accessed April 5, 2016.