Determinants for the Effectiveness of Lifestyle Intervention in the Finnish Diabetes Prevention Study

Lindstrom et al. (1) report from the Finnish Diabetes Prevention Study (DPS) that the Finnish Type 2 Diabetes Risk Score (FINDRISC) is useful for identifying individuals in need of lifestyle intervention. Surprisingly, 61% of participants of the DPS, all of whom were overweight and had impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), were not at high risk based on FINDRISC. Lindstrom et al. argue that participants with low FINDRISC scores had a relatively low risk of progressing to diabetes (1). However, the incidence rates in the control group (4–5 per 100 person-years) clearly suggest otherwise. The discrepancy between oral glucose tolerance test scores and FINDRISC might be explainable in part by the differing predictive abilities of both. Lindstrom et al. …