Effectiveness of a Lifestyle Intervention on Metabolic Syndrome. A Randomized Controlled Trial

Intensive lifestyle intervention significantly reduces the progression to diabetes in high-risk individuals. It is unknown if a less intensive program might also be effective in the general population.

The investigators' aim was to compare the effectiveness of two different modalities that recommend a healthier lifestyle to reduce multiple metabolic abnormalities-a lifestyle intervention program with general recommendations carried out by trained professionals and standard unstructured information given by the family physician-in a dysmetabolic population-based cohort.

All subjects aged 45-64 (n=1,877) from 6 family physicians, representative of the local Health Districts of Asti (Northern Italy), were contacted. A metabolic screening was carried out on 1,658 subjects (88.3%) who accepted to participate.

Out of those subjects, 375 patients had either the metabolic syndrome (MS) or two components of the MS plus high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (CRP) serum values ≥3 mg/L, the cutoff point that differentiates high-risk groups for future cardiovascular events, and did not have any of the exclusion criteria.

Then,187 were randomly allocated to the intervention arm and 188 to the control arm; 18 and 22 individuals refused to participate, respectively. Finally, 169 patients were assigned to the lifestyle intervention program carried out by trained professionals (intervention arm) and 166 to the standard, unstructured information given by the family physicians (control arm). All participants received verbal, not-written, information, emphasizing the importance of a healthy lifestyle from their family physicians, who had previously participated in 3 meetings on standard practice lifestyle recommendations. No further individualized programs were offered to the control arm.