Evaluation of Group Lifestyle Balance Long-Term Maintenance Strategies

Evaluation of Group Lifestyle Balance Long-Term Maintenance Strategies The Group Lifestyle Balance (G The Group Lifestyle Balance (GLB) program, an adaptation of the Diabetes Prevention Program lifestyle intervention for diabetes prevention translation, focuses on a lower-fat diet, weight loss, and adequate physical activity levels, and has been shown to be successful in reducing risk factors for diabetes over a relatively short 3-4 month time period. Although carbohydrates are addressed in the GLB program, carbohydrate reduction as specifically related to hunger management is not a focus. In translation, long-term strategies for maintaining healthy lifestyle practices are lacking. The purpose of this application therefore was to examine the effectiveness of a GLB traditional maintenance (TM) program and to compare it with a carbohydrate reduction and hunger focus maintenance (CM) program. Both TM and CM included 9 monthly support sessions following completion of identical 12 weekly GLB sessions. The primary outcome was weight change; secondary outcomes included fasting HbA1c, glucose and lipid profile, systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP, DPB), and waist circumference (WC). A total of 60 participants with pre-diabetes and/or the metabolic syndrome enrolled. After completion of the 12 weekly GLB sessions at 4MO, participants were randomly assigned by group to TM (N=31) or CM (N=29). At 4 months, after completion of the GLB program, by intention-to-treat analysis, similar significant weight loss was noted in both groups (TM -4.0% vs. CM -4.5%, p=0.41), along with significant decreases in HbA1c, SBP, DBP, and WC; no between group differences were noted. While the CM program initially showed a significant fall in HbA1c (p=0.01) 4 months after its initiation, no significant fall was seen for TM. At 1YR, similar significant weight loss (from baseline) was maintained by both groups (TM-2.6% vs. CM -3.8%, p=0.31) and similar significant decreases in SBP, DBP and WC were also noted. However, between 4 and 12MO there were no differences between the groups for any measure. These results suggest that both maintenance strategies were successful in continuing diabetes and CVD risk factor improvements at 1YR. Funding provided by Robert C. and Veronica Atkins Foundation. M. KAYE KRAMER, ELIZABETH M. VENDITTI, ANDREA M. KRISKA, LINDA N. SEMLER, RACHEL G. MILLER, TREVOR J. ORCHARD 737-P Pittsburgh, PA Diabetes Education