United States: A new study unveiled that it is just as effective for the wallet as for the body in preventing diabetes.
Significant Savings
Individuals engaging in a diabetes prevention program saw an excess of over $5,000 in direct healthcare expenditure savings in a two-year follow-up period, according to a recent study published in the Diabetes Care journal, as reported by HealthDay.
These individuals with prediabetes spent less on hospitalizations, physician’s visits, or ER visits than patients who did not join such a program, researchers added.
“For this real-world population with prediabetes, participation in the NDPP was likely to be cost-effective,” the authors, led by Dr. Shih-Chen Kuo of the University of Michigan’s Caswell Diabetes Institute, concluded.
Understanding this
Researchers in background notes cited that one in every three adults in the United States has been diagnosed with prediabetes, which is a condition where one’s blood glucose level is more than normal but not enough to be considered diabetic.
It was learned that prediabetes, if diagnosed, can indeed be reversible through lifestyle changes, including diet and exercise, but shockingly, according to the researchers, 8 in 10 adults had no earthly idea that they had prediabetes, to begin with.
That is why researchers used the National Diabetes Prevention Program (NDPP) to find out if it is possible to save money for people if diabetes is prevented.
NDPP is a type of community program by CDC across the United States aimed at encouraging people to adopt lifestyle modifications to reverse prediabetes.
About the National Diabetes Prevention Program
The intervention started in 2015 for university employees, dependents, and retirees with prediabetes who are members of the university health insurance plan with no personal costs for NDPP participation.

“In the first six months, participants meet weekly to learn skills that help them improve their overall health. After that, they meet monthly to build on the skills they learned to maintain their positive changes,” Kuo said.
Key Findings
To determine the costs and benefits of the program, the research team administered surveys to almost 6,000 people covered by the University of Michigan health plan, including 575 NDPP participants.
Individuals participating in the program were 88% less likely to incur medical expenses during the first two years and, therefore, spend less money, as the study revealed.
They also depicted a nearly 3% absolute risk reduction in getting type 2 diabetes, as presented below.
However, researchers pointed out that the participants must be monitored for more than two years to ensure that the changes persist in the long run, as reported by HealthDay.
Future Considerations
“We also need to include more people in our study,” Kuo said. “Unfortunately, only 9.6% of the eligible population participated in the National DPP and, therefore, we couldn’t draw any conclusions on which mode of delivery worked the best, whether different patient populations showed similar results, and if the reduced medical costs were due to lower rates of hospitalization or shorter hospital stays.”
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