DPP — Reduction in the incidence of type 2 diabetes with lifestyle intervention or metformin
In plain English
3,234 adults with pre-diabetes were randomised to a placebo, the drug metformin, or an intensive lifestyle programme aiming at 7% weight loss and 150 minutes of activity a week. Over about three years, lifestyle change cut progression to type 2 diabetes by 58% — nearly double the 31% reduction from metformin. It is the landmark proof that diet and exercise can outperform a first-line diabetes drug at preventing the disease.
Why it matters
Intensive lifestyle change cut new type 2 diabetes by 58% — versus 31% for metformin.
Informs: Weight Loss·Diabetes
Provenance
- Design
- Randomised controlled trial
- Sample size (n)
- 3,234
- Follow-up
- 3 years
- Peer-reviewed
- Yes
- Replications
- 3
- Funding
- Public / academic
- Funders
- US National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
- Institutions
- DPP Research Group (27 US centres), George Washington University Biostatistics Center
decades.plus score
A transparent 0–100 weighted sum across six components. Higher scores reflect bigger, cleaner, more replicated work.
Caveats
The lifestyle arm was resource-intensive (individual coaching), raising questions about real-world scalability. Benefit narrowed but persisted over 15+ year follow-up; the trial measured diabetes onset, with hard cardiovascular endpoints taking far longer to emerge.
