Some 36 per cent of people with type 2 diabetes who took part in a weight management programme delivered in primary care are in remission two years later, according to a study recently published in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology.

The cluster-randomised controlled trial – Diabetes Remission Clinical Trial (DiRECT) – looked at participants aged 20-65 years, with less than six years diagnosis of type 2 diabetes and had not received insulin between July 2014 and August 2016. 

After the first year, 46 per cent of participants were in remission and after two years, 70 per cent of those participants were still in remission. The latest results confirm that remission is closely linked to weight loss, with 64 per cent of participants who lost more than 10 kilos being in remission at two years.

Professor Mike Lean, co-primary investigator of the DiRECT trial, commented: “People with type 2 diabetes and healthcare professionals have told us their top research priority is ‘can the condition be reversed or cured’. We can now say, with respect to reversal, that yes it can. Now we must focus on helping people maintain their weight loss and stay in remission for life.”