Vascular Health and Physical Performance In Older Normal and Pre-Diabetic Adults Following a Diabetes Prevention Program

The CDC led a Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) to negate the progress of prediabetes developing into type 2 diabetes (T2D). Prior research has reported DPP decreasing the rate of T2D (58%) compared to Metformin (31%) among pre-diabetics. Vascular health and physical performance (PP) limitations have been related with comorbidities of T2D. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of the DPP on peripheral and central hemodynamics, one-legged balance test, maximal grip strength, and gait speed in normal and pre-diabetic older adults. Methods: 29 participants were placed in the intervention group (n=29). The intervention group performed baseline testing and participated in 12-week pedagogy focused lifestyle intervention. Analysis of variance was used to analyze changed between groups over time. Results: There were no significant differences in demographic data between groups, except for glucose. There were no significant differences (p<.05) between groups for any vascular measures, except for Weight (1.79%), HR (7bpm), and MVC (10.1%) which were significantly different (p=.023), (p=.003), and (p=.043) following the DPP. Conclusion: Data demonstrated that the DPP was not significant in altering vascular measures in pre-diabetics, except in lowering resting HR. As rate pressure product reflects myocardial oxygen demand; lower resting HR may reduce myocardial workload. Significant decreases in weight (1.79%) over 12 weeks suggest effectiveness of DPP as the goal is 5-7% over one year. Additionally, significant improvements in MVC (14.5%) with decreases in weight may suggest the combatting of sarcopenia. It is important to note there were only 5 pre-diabetics included in this dataset