Lifestyle Advice for Who?

There should be little difference between the lifestyle advice given to diabetics and that given to the general public, results of a large, prospective study suggested. Although diabetics in the study had a 62% higher risk of dying than people without a diabetes diagnosis, diabetes status did not substantially influence the associations between lifestyle and mortality risk. Using a competing risk model to quantify and test for differences in epidemiological associations between diabetics and nondiabetics, the researchers were able to assess the impact of BMI, waist/hip ratio, alcohol consumption, smoking, exercise, and 26 food groups on death risk. The study included close to 260,000 people without a diagnosis of diabetes and 6,384 people with a diabetes diagnosis enrolled in a large, prospective study. "This study suggests that, with respect to mortality, lifestyle advice for people with diabetes should not differ from the existing recommendations for the general population," the researchers wrote. "It may be that those with diabetes benefit more from a healthy diet than diabetes-free individuals. Sluik D, et al "Lifestyle factors and mortality risk in individuals with diabetes mellitus: Are the associations different from those in individuals without diabetes?" Diabetologia 2013; DOI: 10.1007/s00125-013-3074-y