results from the diabetes prevention study PREVIEW

Funding: Open Access funding provided by University of Helsinki including Helsinki University Central Hospital. This research was supported by the EU Seventh Framework Programme (FP7; 2007– 2013) (grant no. 312057); National Health and Medical Research Council (EU Collaborative Grant AUS 8, ID 1067711); Glycemic Diabetologia Index Foundation Australia through royalties to the University of Sydney; Health Research Council of New Zealand (grant no. 14/191) and University of Auckland Faculty Research Development Fund; Cambridge Weight Plan, which donated all products for the 8 week weight loss period; Danish Agriculture & Food Council; Danish Meat Research Institute; National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre (NIHR BRC) (UK); Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) (UK); Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) (UK); Nutritics (Dublin), which donated all dietary analysis software used by the University of Nottingham; Juho Vainio Foundation (Finland); Academy of Finland (grant nos 272376, 314383, 266286 and 314135); Finnish Medical Foundation; Gyllenberg Foundation (Finland); Novo Nordisk Foundation; Finnish Diabetes Research Foundation; University of Helsinki; Government Research Funds for Helsinki University Hospital; Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation (Finland); Emil Aaltonen Foundation (Finland); and China Scholarship Council. The funders were not involved in the design of the study, the collection, analysis and interpretation of the data or writing of the report and did not impose any restrictions regarding the publication of the report. AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: Lifestyle interventions are the first-line treatment option for body weight and cardiometabolic health management. However, whether age groups or women and men respond differently to lifestyle interventions is under debate. We aimed to examine age- and sex-specific effects of a low-energy diet (LED) followed by a long-term lifestyle intervention on body weight, body composition and cardiometabolic health markers in adults with prediabetes (i.e. impaired fasting glucose and/or impaired glucose tolerance). METHODS: This observational study used longitudinal data from 2223 overweight participants with prediabetes in the multicentre diabetes prevention study PREVIEW. The participants underwent a LED-induced rapid weight loss (WL) period followed by a 3 year lifestyle-based weight maintenance (WM) intervention. Changes in outcomes of interest in prespecified age (younger: 25-45 years; middle-aged: 46-54 years; older: 55-70 years) or sex (women and men) groups were compared. RESULTS: In total, 783 younger, 319 middle-aged and 1121 older adults and 1503 women and 720 men were included in the analysis. In the available case and complete case analyses, multivariable-adjusted linear mixed models showed that younger and older adults had similar weight loss after the LED, whereas older adults had greater sustained weight loss after the WM intervention (adjusted difference for older vs younger adults -1.25% [95% CI -1.92, -0.58], p