Prevention of Type 2 Diabetes

This chapter discusses the prevention of type 2 diabetes. People at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes can often be identified with simple clinical tests. Many of the risk factors—such as obesity, physical inactivity, and subdiagnostic elevations in glycemia—that predict which of these people are most likely to develop diabetes are potentially modifiable. Randomized clinical trials have confirmed that treatment of diabetes risk factors in high-risk persons can reduce the development of new cases of diabetes. However, none of the tested interventions are fully successful at preventing diabetes, indicating that more effective interventions are needed.