Evaluation of US Veterans Nutrition Education for Diabetes Prevention.

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. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES 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.