Published in:
01-06-2013 | Original Article
Correlation between weight loss and improvement of diabetes mellitus among obese type 2 diabetic patients
Published in: Diabetology International | Issue 2/2013
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Objective
To clarify the correlation between weight loss and the improvement of diabetes mellitus among obese patients with type 2 diabetes.
Patients and methods
One hundred and eighty untreated obese patients with type 2 diabetes with HOMA-R over 1.6 and HbA1c over 6.9 were enrolled to achieve weight reduction over 6 months with diet and exercise intervention. Six months after treatment, the subjects underwent a 75 g glucose tolerance test (OGTT), were diagnosed as the normal type, IGT type, or diabetic type, and potential factors for the normalization of glycemia were analyzed.
Results
Six-month treatment led to a significant reduction (P < 0.001) of body weight and amelioration of glycemic factors. Thirty-two subjects were diagnosed by the 75 g OGTT as normal type, 60 as the IGT type, and 88 as diabetic type. Weight reduction was significantly (P < 0.001) greater in the normal type (15.7–31.5 %) than in the diabetic type (1.8–20.2 %). The normal type had a shorter duration of obesity and diabetes than the diabetic type. Furthermore, HbA1c was reduced to below 6.9 for 168 patients but not for 12 patients. For the former, body weight reduction was 3.1–31.5 %; for the latter it was less than 3 %.
Conclusion
Six-month obesity treatment of obese type 2 diabetic patients led to significant weight loss and the amelioration of glycemic factors. For obese type 2 diabetes, more than 3 % weight reduction is needed to improve glycemic control, and more than 15 % weight reduction and, in addition, short duration of obesity and diabetes (3.5 ± 2.5 years), are required to normalize glucose tolerance.