Objective: Evaluate the effectiveness of nutrition education interventions for diabetes prevention.
Design: Retrospective cohort design.
Setting: Tertiary-care US Veterans' Hospital, July 2007 to July 2012, using pre-existing database.
Participants: Prediabetic, adult veterans (n = 372), mostly men (94.4%, n = 351).
Interventions: Visits with existing nutrition education classes were collected.
Primary outcome: diabetes status; predictors: visits/encounters, age, body mass index, weight change, and hemoglobin A1c.
Analysis: Cox proportional hazards method, χ(2) test, and logistic regression.
Results: In this sample, prediabetic veterans who received nutrition education were less likely to develop diabetes when compared with prediabetic veterans who did not receive nutrition education (hazard ratio, 0.71; 95% confidence interval, 0.55-0.92; P < .01). This difference remained significant after adjusting for body mass index and weight change.
Conclusions and implications: Nutrition education was significantly associated with preventing the progression from prediabetes to diabetes in US Veterans participating in a nutrition education intervention at the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
Keywords: diabetes; nutrition education; prediabetes; veterans.
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