Effect of a 12-Month Intensive Lifestyle Intervention on Hepatic Steatosis in Adults With Type 2 Diabetes
- Mariana Lazo, MD, SCM1,
- Steven F. Solga, MD2,
- Alena Horska, PHD3,
- Susanne Bonekamp, DVM2,
- Anna Mae Diehl, MD4,
- Frederick L. Brancati, MD, MHS1,2,
- Lynne E. Wagenknecht, DRPH5,
- F. Xavier Pi-Sunyer, MD, MPH6,
- Steven E. Kahn, MB, CHB7,
- Jeanne M. Clark, MD, MPH1,2 and
- for the Fatty Liver Subgroup of the Look AHEAD Research Group
- 1Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology, Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research, Baltimore, Maryland;
- 2Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland;
- 3Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland;
- 4Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina,
- 5Division of Public Health Sciences, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina;
- 6Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Nutrition, St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, New York;
- 7Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology and Nutrition, Department of Medicine, VA Puget Sound Health Care System and University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.
- Corresponding author: Mariana Lazo, mlazo{at}jhsph.edu.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Weight loss through lifestyle changes is recommended for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). However, its efficacy in patients with type 2 diabetes is unproven.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Look AHEAD (Action for Health in Diabetes) is a 16-center clinical trial with 5,145 overweight or obese adults with type 2 diabetes, who were randomly assigned to an intensive lifestyle intervention (ILI) to induce a minimum weight loss of 7% or a control group who received diabetes support and education (DSE). In the Fatty Liver Ancillary Study, 96 participants completed proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy to quantify hepatic steatosis and tests to exclude other causes of liver disease at baseline and 12 months. We defined steatosis >5.5% as NAFLD.
RESULTS Participants were 49% women and 68% white. The mean age was 61 years, mean BMI was 35 kg/m2, mean steatosis was 8.0%, and mean aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) were 20.5 and 24.2 units/l, respectively. After 12 months, participants assigned to ILI (n = 46) lost more weight (−8.5 vs. −0.05%; P < 0.01) than those assigned to DSE and had a greater decline in steatosis (−50.8 vs. −22.8%; P = 0.04) and in A1C (−0.7 vs. −0.2%; P = 0.04). There were no significant 12-month changes in AST or ALT levels. At 12 months, 26% of DSE participants and 3% (1 of 31) of ILI participants without NAFLD at baseline developed NAFLD (P < 0.05).
CONCLUSIONS A 12-month intensive lifestyle intervention in patients with type 2 diabetes reduces steatosis and incident NAFLD.
Footnotes
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Clinical trial registry no. NCT00017953, clinicaltrials.gov.
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The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked “advertisement” in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
- Received May 5, 2010.
- Accepted July 14, 2010.
- © 2010 by the American Diabetes Association.
Readers may use this article as long as the work is properly cited, the use is educational and not for profit, and the work is not altered. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ for details.
