Question

Study results: At study close, the incidence of diabetes was 11.0 cases per 100-person years in the placebo group, 7.8 cases per 100-person years in the metformin group and 4.8 cases per 100-person years in the lifestyle group. The lifestyle intervention reduced the incidence by 58% (95% CI, 48 – 66%), and meftormin by 31% (95% CI, 17-43%), as compared to placebo. P<.001 for each comparison.

f. Were the above results statistically significant?

    How so?

g. Was one intervention more effective than the other?

    Which one?

     Explain.

h. Why was per 100-person-years used as opposed to per 100 persons in this study?

i. Describe how health professionals can implement the results of this study in their practice.

Answer 1

f. Were the above results statistically significant? Yes, the result is statistically significant.

How so?

The P value was set at <.001 for each comparison. The result was within the set range of 95% CI for both lifestyle and metformin group. In this study the result was significant at the p <.001 level which is highly significant.

There was a significant reduction in incidence of T2DM by 58% among the lifestyle group and 31% among the metformin group as compared to placebo.

g. Was one intervention more effective than the other? yes

Which one? Lifestyle group had intervention such as weight loss and exercise which was more effective than metformin.

Explain. According to the result above, the incidence of diabetes was 4.8 cases per 100-person years in the lifestyle program group which was significantly lower than the incidence rate of 7.8 cases per 100-person years in volunteers taking metformin. Lifestyle intervention was also shown to reduce the incidence of diabetes by 58% which is higher than 31% in the group taking metformin.

h. Why was per 100-person-years used as opposed to per 100 persons in this study?

Per 100-person years provide more allowance for time under study; the assumption that every volunteer is present for the whole study is not applied here, rather it takes into account that every volunteer in the study is under observation for varying length of time.

i. Describe how health professionals can implement the results of this study in their practice.

Healthcare professionals can encourage and educate adults with high risk for T2DM about lifestyle changes and intervention such as weight loss, exercise, healthy diet because they play a significant role in reducing the risk of diabetes as shown by the result of this study. Supplementing the healthy lifestyle changes with metformin can be done if patients are not making sufficient progress on just lifestyle changes/intervention alone.