Impact of intensive lifestyle intervention on preference-based quality of life in type 2 diabetes: Results from the Look AHEAD trial.

Objective: To assess the effect of an intensive lifestyle intervention (ILI) compared with standard diabetes support and education (DSE) on preference-based health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in persons with overweight or obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Methods: Look AHEAD was a multisite, randomized trial of 5,145 participants assigned to ILI or DSE. Four instruments were administered during the trial: Feeling Thermometer (FT), Health Utilities Index Mark 2 (HUI2), Health Utilities Index Mark 3 (HUI3), and Short Form 6D (SF-6D). Linear mixed effect models were used to estimate the mean difference in preference scores by treatment group for 9 years.

Results: The ILI had higher mean FT (0.019, 95% CI, 0.015-0.024, P < 0.001) and SF-6D (0.011, 95% CI, 0.006-0.014, P < 0.001) scores than the DSE. No significant group differences were observed for the HUI2 (0.004, 95% CI, -0.003 to 0.010, P = 0.23) and HUI3 (0.004, -0.004 to 0.012, P = 0.36). In year 1, the ILI had higher mean preference scores for all instruments. Thereafter, the increases remained significant only for FT and SF-6D, and the effects also become smaller.

Conclusions: ILI aimed at reducing body weight among persons with overweight or obesity and type 2 diabetes improves preference-based HRQOL in the short term, but its long-term effect is unclear.