Do depressive symptoms have an impact on the effectiveness of lifestyle counseling in prevention of type 2 diabetes? One-year follow-up of FIN-D2D

Abstract

Aim: To examine whether depressive symptoms are associated with the effectiveness of lifestyle counseling on cardio-metabolic risk profile and glucose homeostasis during one-year follow-up in individuals at high risk for type 2 diabetes (T2D).

Methods: A total of 10,149 individuals took part in the implementation project of the national diabetes prevention program (FIN-D2D) conducted in primary health care setting in Finland. At baseline, altogether 2798 non-diabetic individuals participated in the one-year follow-up, and 2275 of them had at least one group or individual counseling visit.

Results: 4.0% of the individuals (n=78) had depressive symptoms, while 96.0% (n=1889) were free of depressive symptoms at baseline. Individuals who had depressive symptoms had higher body mass index and waist circumference at baseline than individuals without depressive symptoms. In terms of changes in cardio-metabolic risk profile and glucose homeostasis the effectiveness of lifestyle counseling was parallel between individuals with and without depressive symptoms during the one-year follow-up.

Conclusions: Effectiveness of lifestyle counseling did not differ between individuals with and without depressive symptoms. Individuals with depressive symptoms should not be excluded from lifestyle intervention programs.

Keywords: Cardio-metabolic risk profile; Depressive symptoms; Glucose homeostasis; Lifestyle intervention; Primary health care.