Lifestyle Intervention in Prediabetes Yields Decline in Multimorbidity

MONDAY, June 22, 2026 (HealthDay News) — For adults with prediabetes, lifestyle intervention is associated with a lower burden of multimorbidity over long-term follow-up, according to a study published online June 15 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Marcel E. Salive, M.D., from the National Institute on Aging in Bethesda, Maryland, and colleagues examined the association of lifestyle or metformin versus placebo on long-term multimorbidity in an observational follow-up cohort study of a randomized clinical trial involving 3,234 adults with prediabetes enrolled in the three-year Diabetes Prevention Program from June 1, 1996, to May 28, 1999. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services morbidity data were available through 2021 for 1,173 participants.

The researchers found that 997 (85 percent) of the 1,173 participants experienced two or more conditions by the end of follow-up (82, 85, and 87 percent in the lifestyle, metformin, and placebo groups, respectively). After adjustment for relevant covariates, the risk for multimorbidity was significantly lower for patients in the lifestyle intervention versus placebo (hazard ratio, 0.79). No significant difference was seen for participants in the metformin and placebo groups. When diabetes was excluded from the multimorbidity definition, these associations persisted. The association for lifestyle versus placebo had a hazard ratio of 0.57 when restricted to dyads of the costliest conditions.

“The main takeaway point with this study that I saw is that it is really going to make a big impact on our patients” futures,” Shirin Jaggi, D.O., from Northwell North Shore University Hospital, said in a statement. “So, I encourage patients to speak with their physicians on how to implement all these lifestyle changes.”

One author disclosed ties to Amgen.

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